BMJ 1995;310:1003 (15 April)

Letters

Informed consent may increase non-attendance rate

EDITOR,--The Health of the nation aims at reducing deaths from breast cancer in women invited for screening by a quarter by 2000. This target is unlikely to be met as there are only five years to go; judging by the current rates of interval breast cancer, we are probably only half way to that target.1 If there is any reduction in mortality from breast cancer by 2000 it is just as likely to be attributable to the improvements in treatment since the publication of the world overview on adjuvant systemic treatment in 1992.2 So what remedial actions should be taken?

S Field and colleagues suggest that the United Kingdom Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research trial of the frequency of breast screening will identify the optimum interval between screens.3 This trial, however, compares only one year with three years. It is hard to believe that the one year interval will not . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Is the three year breast screening interval too long? Occurrence of interval cancers in NHS breast screening programme's north western region
Ciaran B J Woodman, Anthony G Threlfall, Caroline R M Boggis, and Pat Prior
BMJ 1995 310: 224-226. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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