Mammographic screening: No reliable supporting evidence?

Olli S. Miettinen, Claudia I. Henschke, Mark W. Pasmantier, James P. Smith, Daniel M. Libby, David F. Yankelevitz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

122 Scopus citations

Abstract

Much confusion is being generated by the conclusion of a recent review that "there is no reliable evidence that screening for breast cancer reduces mortality." In that review, however, there was no appreciation of the appropriate mortality-related measure of screening's usefulness; and correspondingly, there was no estimation of the magnitude of this measure. We take this measure to be the proportional reduction in case-fatality rate, and studied its magnitude on the basis of the only valid and otherwise suitable trial. We found reliable evidence of fatality reduction, apparently substantial in magnitude.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)404-405
Number of pages2
JournalThe Lancet
Volume359
Issue number9304
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Feb 2002
Externally publishedYes

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