1. What the papers say! Exploring the myths of the media
Miss Tena Walters
MB BS, FRCS, MS
Consultant Breast Surgeon
BMI and The London Breast Clinic
108 Harley St

2. Metro 1st September 2011 Tariq Tahir

3. Breast Cancer Screening benefits overstated Gotzsche and Jorgensen
Women undergoing screening are misinformed about drawbacks
Its effectiveness is overstated
Survival rates are due to better treatment
Over-diagnosis leads to unnecessary mastectomy
Called for ‘honesty’ in the NHS

4. Disadvantages of Screening
Cost
False positives: 2 dimensional picture of 3 dimensional structure
Occult and low grade disease
Radiation exposure
Same as 4 days
1/60 th CXR
1/250 th CT Scan
10 minutes on a transatlantic flight

5. Breast Cancer Benefits Overstated Response from Prof Julietta Patnick
1 life saved for every 400 screened
97% women with screen detected cancers alive after 5 years compared with 80% of all women diagnosed without screening
1400 women saved per year by NHSBSP
Mortality in the screened population proven to be lower

6. NHS BSP
Mortality from breast cancer decreased by 30% since introduction of screening
Lowest mortality since 1950’s
Mortality decline similar in 50 – 60 year old group and year old
Since introduction of screening symptomatic service greatly streamlined
Increase in public awareness and decrease in stigma

7. European trends Increase in mortality Decrease in mortality Russia UK
Germany
Scandinavia
Poland
Czech Republic
Austria
Switzerland

9. Pain killer heart alert The Daily Mail 28th September 2011 Tamara Cohen

10. Diclofenac No need to panic! 17 million prescriptions
Dr Patricia McGettigan Hull York Medical School
Study of 3 million people showed risk of 40%
Meta analysis of case control / cohort studies
Diclofenac summary relative risk of 1.4
Naproxen 0.97 Ibuprofen 1.07

11. Comments -Painsupport
‘an even better health move would be to give up reading the Daily Mail altogether’
‘Newspapers print to sell not to inform’
‘if you listen to breaking news – we’ll be broken before them’
‘dying of a heart attack more attractive than living in pain’

12. Calcium Supplements

13. Calcium Supplements and Heart Disease
Daily Mail 30th July 2010
Calcium Supplements risk 30% higher risk of heart attacks
Meta analysis of 11 trials
1000 people 14 more heart attacks 10 strokes and 26 fewer fractures
Randomised study in USA in 38,000 patients showed reduction in cardiovascular events in 2008

14. The Independent 5TH October 2011 Melanie Newman and Oliver Wright

15. Alternatives available cheaper
Cipramil costs £1.31
Cipralex costs £14.91
Cost to the NHS of £3.3 million
Only one trial showed significant difference between the two drugs but trial was by a company called Arbacom which has not sponsored any research before or since

16. Anti hypertensive medication California teachers study cohort
Increase in breast cancer risk 1.18
Er positive tumours rr 1.21
Premenopausal 1.56
No link in post menopausal women

17. What’s New?
Herceptin and antibody combination Fewer side effects 14 month disease free interval compared with 9 month disease free interval The Holy Grail of cancer medicine