Breast screen error could have been found earlier

Professor Peter Sasieni is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Cancer Prevention at Queen Mary University of London has written an open letter to the Lancet expressing concerns that the error with regards to breast cancer screening patients age 60-70 may have extended as far back as 2004/5 rather than just 2009.

Public Health England is currently conducting a review of the screening debacle which has been attributed to a change in the way age a computer algorithm calculated appointments based on age.  Professor Sasieni has reviewed the previously published data relating to patient appointments and has found that the proportion of eligible  women age 65-70 invited for screening in 2004/5 was lower than for other groups thereby suggesting that some particularly aged 70, may not have been appropriately screened.

It is important that the independent inquiry is comprehensive and we therefore trust the Professor Sasieni’s observations are properly investigated.

Read more here.