title: Estimating the influence of rescreening interval on the benefits associated with cancer screening: approaches and limitations.
abstract: ABSTRACT Randomized controlled trials that seek to measure the ability of a screening test to lower cancer mortality generally do not provide data that bear on the relative efficacy of different screening intervals. Guidance regarding the choice of a screening interval that achieves a high level of case-finding, without being excessively costly, can be obtained from one or more of several study designs that examine the subsequent occurrence of cancer in persons who have had a negative screening test. However, each of these can potentially provide a misleading result, and so their limitations must be considered before using the data they generate to develop a rational rescreening policy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA. nweiss@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Noel S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Etzioni
mesh_terms: D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011897:Random Allocation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors