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