A controversy followed after a top American Cancer Society said that the benefits of breast cancer and prostate cancer screening may have been overestimated.

The controversy became even more fired up after Dr Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the ACS. Brawley made the statement in an interview with the New York Times about an analysis of breast and prostate cancer screening in the journal of the American Medical Association, which doubted the claims that screening saves lives.

Brawley supported the questions raised in the journal and said that the benefits of screening had been exaggerated. He said that ACS was still working on its message on breast and prostate cancer screening.

He also addressed prostate cancer screening in his statement, "Since 1997 the American Cancer Society has recommended that men talk to their doctor and make an informed decision about whether or not prostate cancer early detection testing is right for them. This recommendation also still stands."

Norton, deputy physician-in-chief for Breast Cancer Programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York said that ACS and Brawley were sending wrong messages regarding screening.

Norton, although, agreed that mammography was not the perfect screening tool but the fact remains that if a woman wants to reduce her chances of death caused by breast cancer than choosing mammography is the right thing to do.

But Dr. Susan Love, president and medical director of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, says it’s the screening tool and not screening itself that is the problem.

Dr. Mauro Ferrari of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston said that the correct conclusion was that the current screening techniques were insufficient.