A new study has revealed that some breast cancer patients have received invasive and life-changing treatments that may have been unnecessary. It’s the first study to examine how ‘overdiagnosis’ and ‘overtreatment’ of the disease have caused harm. Overdiagnosis occurs when cancer is correctly diagnosed but identified at such an early stage that the cancerous cells are unlikely to do damage in a person’s lifetime, and overtreatment is when those cells are treated with major surgery. It’s a growing issue thanks to new technology detecting cancer more often – and it’s also a problem faced by prostate cancer patients. Expert/surgeon Prof Chris Pyke says it’s a conversation worth having because there are “a certain number of people diagnosed with diseases that would never have affected the person”. Meanwhile, a small but “groundbreaking” cancer drug trial has become the first to have a 100% success rate. Not a bad result…