title: Mammographic screening: no reliable supporting evidence?
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.
authors.forename: Olli S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Miettinen
authors.forename: Claudia I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Henschke
authors.forename: Mark W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Pasmantier
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Libby
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Yankelevitz
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results