According to scientists, breast cancer screening benefits have been overestimated as they fail to save enough lives to fall in the category of being beneficial. Every year, more than two million women have a mammogram in the UK. The technique involves an X-ray of the breast to detect possible early-stage tumors, but doubts have been casted over its benefits.

Mammograms also cause harm, say critics, as many women are given treatment after being detected for small growth that is high unlikely to cause any trouble to them in their lifetime.

Prof. Sir Mike Richards said after a major review in 2012 that the harm caused to women by mammograms was much higher than they had been told.

Leading cancer epidemiologists have targeted the trials that were conducted during the 1960s and 1970s in Sweden. They said the results showed 20-25% of breast cancer deaths could be saved by bringing the screening technique in use.

The experts debunked the conclusion in a paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, saying that the figures of the study were wrong and overestimated. The reduction in number of deaths is less than 10%, they say.

"Contrary to expectations, numerous studies in North America, Europe and Australia have shown that the rates of advanced breast cancer have not declined in countries where most women regularly attend mammography screening", said the lead author, Prof Philippe Autier, from the Institute of Global Public Health, a joint health research initiative of Strathclyde University and the Lyon-based International Prevention Research Institute (iPRI).