title: Failure of selective screening for breast cancer by combining risk factors.
abstract: The possibilities of selective screening to reduce the costs of screening programmes for breast cancer were considered. Discriminant function analysis was used in an effort to describe a high-risk group of breast cancer, which will be subjected to screening. The high-risk group consisted of females with a combination of reproductive and hormone use characteristics. One-fifth of the breast cancer cases remained in the low-risk group, when the high-risk group was small enough (two-thirds of the population) to yield a meaningful reduction in costs. Selective screening for breast cancer seems to have only limited applicability and is not effective enough for application in public health work.
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008423:Maternal Age; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D012306:Risk; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic