Two views mean twice the dose of radiation

BMJ 1995;310:1003-1004 (15 April)

Letters

Two views mean twice the dose of radiation

EDITOR,--In their paper on breast screening and interval cancersCiaran B J Woodman and colleagues state that "interval cancersmay occur as a result of the failure to detect an abnormalityat the time of screening (false interval cancers) or may occuras a new event after a negative screen (true interval cancers."¹They do not seem to consider the possibility that the screeningprocess itself may have sparked off some of these "new events."To recommend, as S Field and colleagues do in their editorial,²that two views should be taken instead of one and that the screeninginterval should be reduced from three to two years, withouteven considering the possible adverse effects of repeated exposureto low doses of ionising radiation,³ strikes me as foolhardy.

General practitioner Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire

Robert Blomfield

Woodman CBJ, Threlfall AG, Baggis CRM, Prior P. Is the three year breast screening interval . . . [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]