Twenty-five Year Follow-up of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study

Controversy rages over the relative benefits or harms of screening for breast cancer, with evidence suggesting that in younger women at least it does more harm than good. Now a new paper on bmj.com reports the results of 25 years of follow up of women who have taken part in a breast cancer screening trial in Canada, and suggests that annual screening does not cut breast cancer deaths. Anthony Miller, Professor Emeritus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, lead author on the paper, and director of the trial, joins us to discuss the results.