title: The mathematics of screening mammography.
abstract: In an unselected population of women in their early fifties, about 7500 mammograms would have to be performed annually at a cost of U.S. $375,000 per survivor in order to find one woman who would: 1) have an incidental cancer in stage I which was not detectable by physical examination; and 2) owe her survival to the early detection of that cancer. Annual screening mammography has a poor cost-benefit ratio.
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000191:economics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000191:economics*