Komen cancer foundation 'oversells mammograms'

Medical experts on Friday accused a major US breast cancer foundation known for its high-profile "pink ribbon" campaign of overselling pre-emptive mammography and understating the risks.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation uses misleading statistics in its pro-screening campaigns, two doctors from TheDartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in New Hampshire wrote in the BMJ medical journal.

"Unfortunately, there is a big mismatch between the strength of evidence in support of screening and the strength of Komen's advocacy for it," professors Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartzwrote.

They take issue with a Komen poster comparing the 98-percent five-year survival rate for breast cancer when caught early, with a 23-percent rate for later diagnosis.

Comparing the two figures did not say anything about the benefits of screening, they argued, and in reality a mammogram only narrowly decreases the chances that a 50-year-old woman will die from breast cancer within 10 years from 0.53 percent to 0.46 percent.