Imperfect Breast Exams Save Lives

Are beast cancer screenings perfect? No.

But do they save lives? Bristish researchers say absolutely, adding more fuel to a raging debate in the U.S. over whether younger women should get routine breast exams to check for cancer.

The argument for not getting exams: cost to the health care system and possible misdiagnosis among low-risk patients. But for every misdiagnosed case, at least two women's lives are saved, according to the research published in the U.K.'s Journal of Medical Screening. Researchers at Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry studied data of 80,000 European women 50 and older.

"There is a risk of over-diagnosis, and possible subsequent over-treatment, associated with any screening program," Richard Winder, deputy director of National Health Service's cancer-screening programs, tells the BBC. "But this latest, independent study shows that the risk of over-diagnosis is very much lower than some other recent estimates have claimed, and that the benefits far outweigh the risks."

In the U.K., the government offers breast screenings every three years to women 50 to 70. In 2012, England will extend those screenings to women 47 to 73, the BBC reports. Almost 46,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the U.K., and more than 12,000 die.

In the U.S., advisers to the government's health policymakers created a firestorm by saying women under 50 don't need regular breast-cancer exams. Advocacy groups, doctors, and mammogram makers like General Electric Co. protested the advice, saying such recommendations put women's lives in danger.