Professor Norbert Ifrah, who chairs the National Cancer Institute, castigates the wrong information circulating on social networks.
Critics of organized breast cancer screening are "irresponsible," accuses Norbert Ifrah, president of the National Cancer Institute (INCA), in an interview with Paris .
The teacher is alarmed by the decline in the follow-up of women. Participation in organized screening has been declining for a few years, falling even below 50% in 2017. "We lost 2% of participation in two years and we are far from the European recommendations that advocate 70%," said Professor Ifrah.
"A campaign of surreal denigration"
"There is a scientific debate about the limits of screening, it's healthy. But we are witnessing in France a campaign of surreal denigration, especially on social networks. Its detractors, few but very active, are irresponsible, "he says.
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In particular, anti-screening evokes the fact that screening can detect lesions that would not necessarily have evolved into cancer (overdiagnosis).
"But 80% will evolve, hence the need for regular monitoring , " says the president of the Inca. "I'm not saying that there is zero useless operation, but they are very few. On the other hand, we know that with organized screening, we save about 12% of women a heavy surgery and only a third will have chemotherapy against more than half excluding screening. "
Screening saves lives
"According to global studies, screening can prevent between 15 and 20% of deaths," adds the official.
"That's why reading on the networks that there are fake cancers stuns me. This term, catastrophic, is harmful, " he says, referring to the risk " that misinformation does not separate women, often the most at risk and the most precarious, from the health care system, and that more cancers are treated. late .
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The most common cancer in women
Breast cancer remains the most common and deadliest cancer in women: 59,000 new cases per year and nearly 12,000 deaths in France. The survival rate is 99% at 5 years when detected at an early stage against 26% when detected at an advanced stage.