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Is screening for breast cancer with mammography justifiable?

The LancetPublished 1 January 2000
Peter C Gøtzsche, Ole Olsen
Citations860
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score12.11
SNIP22.72

TL;DR

Screening for breast cancer with mammography is unjustified because for every 1000 women screened biennially throughout 12 years, one breast-cancer death is avoided whereas the total number of deaths is increased by six.

Abstract

Screening for breast cancer with mammography is unjustified. If the Swedish trials are judged to be unbiased, the data show that for every 1000 women screened biennially throughout 12 years, one breast-cancer death is avoided whereas the total number of deaths is increased by six. If the Swedish trials (apart from the Malmö trial) are judged to be biased, there is no reliable evidence that screening decreases breast-cancer mortality.

Keywords

MedicineBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology