ARCANE debates about the black art of statistics rarely have the power to kill. Here’s one that does.
Last week, an article in a prestigious medical journal damned six influential studies, all of which concluded that screening by mammography can save lives. The headlines that followed were predictable: “Breast cancer screening is a waste of time” was par for the course.
Some women will have read this and shelved their New Year’s resolution to have a mammogram. Some could well have a tumour that will, as a result, go undetected. For some of them, detection may come too late.
That…
