Report due on screening blunders

Evidence suggests screening saves lives

The results of an inquiry into a breast screening programme suspended after 11 women were wrongly given the all-clear will be released on Monday.

The women were among 123 who should have been recalled for further tests after initial screening.

The errors took place at the West of London Screening Service, run by Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust from Charing Cross Hospital.

Mistakes committed by staff included putting files in the wrong pile, and losing X-rays.

Long delay

An inquiry was launched last April by the standards watchdog, the Commission for Health Improvement.

More than 104,000 cases, dating back to 1993, were reviewed.

It was found one woman's treatment was delayed for almost two years because of the blunder. Others had to endure delays of several months.

Of the 11 given the all-clear, six had found signs of breast cancer and were being treated by the time the results emerged.

Breast cancer facts

33,000 new cases each year - screening detects 8,300

Lifetime risk of developing cancer: 1 in 9

11,380 deaths in 2000

1.3 million women screened - 1.6m invited

The other five were offered treatment including radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The mistakes came to light after a woman was sent the wrong letter telling her to return to hospital in three years instead of immediately.

Eve Acorn, 60, a retired teacher and amateur artist, refused to believe doctors who gave her the all clear and insisted on an operation which showed she had cancer.

Hammersmith Hospitals NHS trust has blamed the errors on a backlog of work caused by increasing demand and staff shortages.

Last month, cancer experts hailed the success of mammography in fighting breast cancer.

It follows a protracted debate among the medical profession over whether breast screening has led to a fall in the number of cancer deaths.

Screening benefits

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) examined all the evidence for and against screening - and its overall verdict was that it should continue.

It said that for every 500 women screened, over a 10-year period, one of them will be saved by breast screening.

The IARC's Professor Bruce Armstrong, who chaired the breast screening working group, said: "A quality screening programme - done every two years in women aged 50 to 69 - will reduce the risk of death from breast cancer.

"It would be reasonable for health services to expect a fall in mortality from breast cancer of some 20% in the long term".

Death rates from breast cancer have been falling in the UK since the inception of the breast screening programme more than a decade ago.

The UK programme currently offers screening to women aged between 50 and 70, at three-yearly intervals.