For every genuine case of cancer detected by the test - which is recommended to all women over the age of 50 - there are 10 false readings. Mammography is a very limited technology which sees mass and structure but not activity and so is unable to detect whether a lump is cancerous or aggressive.
However, despite these false readings, thousands of women are being subjected to further tests, chemotherapy and even mastectomies - for no reason.
WDDTY editor Lynne McTaggart says: "Mammograms have been used in the UK since 1988 but they simply aren't fit for purpose. It's a scandal that they are the technology of choice for a national routine screening programme."
Breast cancer currently kills around 12,000 women each year in the UK, but according to WDDTY, alternatives to mammogram screening such as thermotherapy are being ignored.
The WDDTY Special Report reveals how the politics of medicine demoted thermography to an also-ran when, 30 years ago, it worked in conjunction with mammography to produce an accurate prognosis of breast cancer.
According to the report, a third of all breast tumours are not detected by mammograms, but are instead found either by the woman herself when she inspects her own breasts or by a clinician.
Mammograms also miss cancers when the breast tissue is dense, which is fairly common in younger women who have not reached the menopause, and in those who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after the menopause. Around 20 per cent of post-menopausal women have dense breast tissue, which makes an accurate mammogram impossible.
Furthermore, regular mammograms subject women to a cumulatively high level of radiation that can be carcinogenic, whilst the screening process itself requires the breast to be compressed in a way that spreads any cancer that is present.
Case study
60 year old Pauline was in very bad shape when she arrived at an alternative healing centre near her Liverpool home to get a second opinion on a mammogram.
Just days before, she had been subjected to 12 mammograms and 21 biopsies in one day at her local hospital, which had left her bruised, in pain and very frightened.
At the end of the stressful screening process, Pauline was told she had stage III cancer—the stage before it is terminal—in her right breast. The doctor recommended an immediate mastectomy.
Pauline didn't believe the diagnosis; she hadn't even felt any lumps in the breast. Instead, she decided on a second opinion at the healing centre, which had recently started to offer thermographic screening.
Pauline's first thermographic image showed large areas of green all around her breast and chest, which suggests absolutely no cancerous activity. After expert evaluation, Pauline was recommended to adopt a 'watchful waiting' approach — regular inspection for any breast lumps, a strict diet and vitamin supplements.
Three months later, a second thermograph confirmed the first reading— no cancer in the breast. And so it has proved to this day. Had Pauline believed the advice of the doctors — who had, in turn, believed the mammogram results — she would no longer have her right breast, and would probably be on debilitating chemotherapy to stop the spread of a cancer that was never there.
