Professor Ann O'Doherty:

There is no other test that is better than screening mammography. When we are in the symptomatic service we do ultrasound on every woman with a lump. Ultrasound on its own picks up 60% of breast cancers. Mammography on its own picks up somewhere in the mid-80s. The two together have a negative predictive value of 97%. Ultrasound is incredibly time-consuming and operator-dependent. We could not possibly have a screening programme using breast ultrasound. We do not have a better test available. We might in ten years' time when we have genetic markers and blood tests. It may well happen in our lifetime but at this moment we do not have a better test. I wish we did but we do not.