Evidence map›Paper›PMID 12689345›Full record

ArticleBMC medical research methodology2003

Using observational data to estimate an upper bound on the reduction in cancer mortality due to periodic screening.

Stuart G Baker, Diane Erwin, Barnett S Kramer, Philip C Prorok

Abstract readComparative StudyEvaluation Study
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Stuart G BakerBiometry Research Group, Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, USA. sb16i@nih.gov
Diane Erwin
Barnett S Kramer
Philip C Prorok

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundBecause randomized cancer screening trials are very expensive, observational cancer screening studies can play an important role in the early phases of screening evaluation. Periodic screening evaluation (PSE) is a methodology for estimating the reduction in population cancer mortality from data on subjects who receive regularly scheduled screens. Although PSE does not require assumptions about natural history of cancer it requires other assumptions, particularly progressive detection - the assumption that once a cancer is detected by a screening test, it will always be detected by the screening test.

methodsWe formulate a simple version of PSE and show that it leads to an upper bound on screening efficacy if the progressive detection assumption does not hold (and any effect of birth cohort is minimal) To determine if the upper bound is reasonable, for three randomized screening trials, we compared PSE estimates based only on screened subjects with PSE estimates based on all subjects.

resultsIn the three randomized screening trials, PSE estimates based on screened subjects gave fairly close results to PSE estimates based on all subjects.

conclusionPSE has promise for obtaining an upper bound on the reduction in population cancer mortality rates based on observational screening data. If the upper bound estimate is found to be small and any birth cohort effects are likely minimal, then a definitive randomized trial would not be warranted.

Indexed as

Age FactorsBiometryBreast NeoplasmsColorectal NeoplasmsHumansLung NeoplasmsMinnesotaNeoplasmsNew YorkRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicReproducibility of ResultsStatistical Distributions

Identifiers

PMID12689345
PMCPMC153501

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.