Breast cancer screening could be better and less painful
The breast cancer screening tests offered to women may in many cases be unnecessarily painful. New research from Lund University in Sweden shows that strong compression of the breast during mammography screening does not automatically lead to a better basis for diagnosis. Every year, hundreds of thousands of women aged between 40 and 74 are invited to undergo mammography to detect abnormal changes and tumours in the breast as early as possible. The screening examination is repeated every 1.5 to 2 years. Despite the extensive screening programme, a large proportion of all breast cancer