Mammographic screening: Secondary prevention [Mammographiescreening - Sekundäre prävention]

Breast cancer represents a tumour disease with high incidence and mortality rates and a lengthy preclinical stage. Moreover, primary prevention is not yet possible at this time. Thus, secondary preventive measures are justified. Regular mammography in symptom-free women can serve to detect breast cancer in its early stages before symptoms become manifest. A statistically significant reduction in mortality could be verified in several older, randomly controlled studies and their meta-analysis. In contrast, recent publications call into question those study results. These doubts need not, however, jeopardize endeavours to provide the necessary nationwide improvement of breast cancer screening in Germany. Therefore, this article analyses the available data and presents conclusions that can be drawn from them.