Response to critique by Indira Chakravarthi

Indira Chakravarthi's critique relates to our paper published in the British Medical Journal in 2021 titled "Effect of screening by clinical breast examination on breast cancer incidence and mortality after 20 years: prospective, cluster randomised controlled trial in Mumbai". The study addressed the unanswered questions as to whether clinical breast examination (CBE) conducted by female health workers would lead to a reduction in mortality from breast cancer. Chakravarthi raises multiple issues relating to our study and we provide in this paper point-by-point responses to these issues. The results of our study show that two-yearly CBE screening can reduce death rate from breast cancer by 30% in women above the age of 50 and to a lesser extent to those below this age. CBE screening if implemented in low- and middle-income countries can save thousands of lives globally each year.