Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22155336›Full record

ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2011

Possible net harms of breast cancer screening: updated modelling of Forrest report.

James Raftery, Maria Chorozoglou

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–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

15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Guideline
  2. Article
  3. No association between breast pain and breast cancer: a prospective cohort study of 10 830 symptomatic women presenting to a breast cancer diagnostic clinic.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Mammography screening is harmful and should be abandoned.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2015
    Article
  10. Explaining variations in breast cancer screening across European countries.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2014
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. Breast screening review--a radiologist's perspective.The British journal of radiology · 2012
    Review
  14. Article
  15. Overview in Breast Cancer Screening in Lebanon.Cancer control : journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

James RafteryFaculty of Medicine, Wessex Institute, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7PX, UK. j.p.raftery@soton.ac.uk
Maria Chorozoglou

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo assess the claim in a Cochrane review that mammographic breast cancer screening could be doing more harm than good by updating the analysis in the Forrest report, which led to screening in the United Kingdom.

designDevelopment of a life table model, which replicated Forrest's results before updating and extending them with data from relevant systematic reviews, trials, and other models based on purposive literature searches.

participantsWomen aged 50 and over invited for breast cancer screening.

main outcome measuresQuality adjusted life years (QALYs), combining life years gained from screening with losses of quality of life from false positive diagnoses and surgery.

resultsInclusion of the effects of harms reduced the updated estimate of net cumulative QALYs gained after 20 years from 3301 to 1536 or by more than half. The best estimates from the Cochrane review generated negative QALYs for the first seven years of screening, 70 QALYs after 10 years, and 834 QALYs after 20 years. Sensitivity analysis showed these results were robust to a range of assumptions, particularly up to 10 years. It also indicated the importance of the level and duration of harms from surgery.

conclusionsThis analysis supports the claim that the introduction of breast cancer screening might have caused net harm for up to 10 years after the start of screening.

Indexed as

MammographyBreast NeoplasmsFemaleHumansMass ScreeningMiddle AgedQuality-Adjusted Life YearsQuality of LifeReview Literature as TopicUnited Kingdom

Identifiers

PMID22155336
PMCPMC3234304

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.