Comprehending and communicating statistics in breast cancer screening. Ethical implications and potential solutions

Cancer screening and cancer prevention currently constitute the most promising way of tackling cancer in clinical practice and the public health domain. Cancer screening aims to find early signs of the disease in asymptomatic individuals so that it can be treated early. Although early detection has been shown to be beneficial for several conditions, it is also associated with the possibility of false-positive test results, and an increased number of insignificant abnormal findings (that is, overdiagnosis), which usually leads to unnecessary and harmful treatment with no benefits for the patient. Moreover, it has been shown that patients find it challenging to understand risk in terms of probabilities and percentages, which constitutes a serious obstacle to making a well-informed choice. We suggest that dedicated counselling could help patients better to understand the benefits and risks related to cancer screening and, therefore, enhance the decision-making process, and trust in healthcare professionals.