Screening improves stage IV breast cancer survival rate by 60% – study

Women with stage IV breast cancer found through screening had a 60 per cent chance of surviving 10 years after diagnosis, a study found.

This compares with a survival rate of under 20 per cent for those whose stage IV breast cancer was not detected through screening.

Stage IV is the most serious stage, meaning the cancer has spread to distant organs or tissues.

The study looked at whether the way breast cancer is detected affects survival at different stages.

It found stage IV cancers picked up through screening were more likely to be treated with surgery, suggesting the spread was limited enough for full removal to be attempted.

Dr Amy Tickle, the lead author who undertook the research whilst doing a PhD at King’s College London, said: “Our results show that how breast cancer is detected could impact the patient’s survival chances.

“There is understandably a lot of fear around cancer being found late, but our findings provide reassurance that long-term survival is still possible when it is found during screening.

“Our research highlights the importance of screening programmes and we hope this encourages everyone who is invited to attend their appointment.

“Further research is now needed to better understand the reasons behind this improved survival.”

Researchers from King’s College London, Queen Mary University London and the University of Southern Denmark linked Danish breast screening records from 2010 to 2019 with national death records from 2010 to 2022.

They compared mortality in women with breast cancer with women without the disease to estimate excess mortality, meaning deaths above the level expected without breast cancer.

Mortality in women without breast cancer was also assessed by prior screening history, which the team said removed biases linked to screening participation.

Professor Peter Sasieni, Dr Tickle’s PhD supervisor at King’s College London, who now works at Queen Mary University of London, said: “We looked at survival in women with screened detected breast cancer, in women who had never been screening and in women who had been screened previously but whose cancer was not detected through screening.

“For women with Stages I, II and III breast cancer, survival did not vary by screening history.

“But for stage IV breast cancer, we were surprised to see that prognosis for those whose cancer was screened detected resembled that of women with stage III breast cancer; they were three times more likely to live for another 10 years than other women with stage IV breast cancer.”

In the UK, the NHS offers screening to women aged 50 to 70 every three years, with invitations sent automatically to those registered with a GP, with the first appointment usually by age 53.

The authors said the findings could also help monitor screening programmes by tracking the stage at diagnosis, which may allow changes to breast screening to be assessed five to 10 years sooner than waiting to measure breast cancer mortality directly.