Peter C Gotzsche Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis, Director, The Nordic Cochrane Centre and Chief Physician, Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

• 1. Introduction 2. Important issues in cancer screening 3. Does screening work in Sweden? 4. Stonewalling the Cochrane report on screening 5. Troubling results in the Lancet 6. Harms dismissed by the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group 7. The Lancet publishes the harms of screening 8. Delayed media storm in the United States after our 2001 reviews 9. The Danish National Board of Health circles the wagons 10. US and Swedish 2002 meta-analyses 11. Scientific debates in the United States 12. Publication of entire Cochrane review obstructed for 5 years 13. Editorial misconduct in the European Journal of Cancer 14. Tabár’s ‘beyond reason’ studies 15. Other observational studies of breast cancer mortality 16. Overdiagnosis and overtreatment 17. Ad hominem attacks: a measure of desperation? 18. US recommendations for women aged 40–49 years 19. What have women been told? 20. Extraordinary exaggerations 21. Tabár threatens the BMJ with litigation 22. Falsehoods and perceived censorship in Sweden 23. Celebrating 20 years of breast screening in the United Kingdom 24. Can screening work? 25. Where is screening at today? 26. Where next?

Peter C Gotzsche Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis, Director, The Nordic Cochrane Centre and Chief Physician, Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

• 1. Introduction 2. Important issues in cancer screening 3. Does screening work in Sweden? 4. Stonewalling the Cochrane report on screening 5. Troubling results in the Lancet 6. Harms dismissed by the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group 7. The Lancet publishes the harms of screening 8. Delayed media storm in the United States after our 2001 reviews 9. The Danish National Board of Health circles the wagons 10. US and Swedish 2002 meta-analyses 11. Scientific debates in the United States 12. Publication of entire Cochrane review obstructed for 5 years 13. Editorial misconduct in the European Journal of Cancer 14. Tabár’s ‘beyond reason’ studies 15. Other observational studies of breast cancer mortality 16. Overdiagnosis and overtreatment 17. Ad hominem attacks: a measure of desperation? 18. US recommendations for women aged 40–49 years 19. What have women been told? 20. Extraordinary exaggerations 21. Tabár threatens the BMJ with litigation 22. Falsehoods and perceived censorship in Sweden 23. Celebrating 20 years of breast screening in the United Kingdom 24. Can screening work? 25. Where is screening at today? 26. Where next?

Peter C Gotzsche Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis, Director, The Nordic Cochrane Centre and Chief Physician, Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

• 1. Introduction 2. Important issues in cancer screening 3. Does screening work in Sweden? 4. Stonewalling the Cochrane report on screening 5. Troubling results in the Lancet 6. Harms dismissed by the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group 7. The Lancet publishes the harms of screening 8. Delayed media storm in the United States after our 2001 reviews 9. The Danish National Board of Health circles the wagons 10. US and Swedish 2002 meta-analyses 11. Scientific debates in the United States 12. Publication of entire Cochrane review obstructed for 5 years 13. Editorial misconduct in the European Journal of Cancer 14. Tabár’s ‘beyond reason’ studies 15. Other observational studies of breast cancer mortality 16. Overdiagnosis and overtreatment 17. Ad hominem attacks: a measure of desperation? 18. US recommendations for women aged 40–49 years 19. What have women been told? 20. Extraordinary exaggerations 21. Tabár threatens the BMJ with litigation 22. Falsehoods and perceived censorship in Sweden 23. Celebrating 20 years of breast screening in the United Kingdom 24. Can screening work? 25. Where is screening at today? 26. Where next?