ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2013
Overdiagnosis in screening mammography in Denmark: population based cohort study.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recommendations on screening for breast cancer in women aged 40-74 years who are not at increased risk for breast cancer.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2018Guideline
- Quantifying and monitoring overdiagnosis in cancer screening: a systematic review of methods.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2015Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Is there excess mortality in women screened with mammography: a meta-analysis of non-breast cancer mortality.Trials · 2013Pooled it
- Evaluating the Impact of Age on Prostate Cancer Overdiagnosis Using Long-Term Follow-Up From the CAP Randomised Trial.International journal of cancer · 2026Trial
- A prospective analysis of false positive events in a National Colon Cancer Surveillance Program.BMC health services research · 2014Trial
- Evaluating the impact of age on prostate cancer overdiagnosis using long-term follow-up from a randomised trial.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- A Systematic Review of the Cost-Effectiveness of Screening Modalities for Breast Cancer in European Countries.Cancers · 2025Review
- Estimations of overdiagnosis in breast cancer screening vary between 0% and over 50%: why?BMJ open · 2021Review
- Breast cancer mortality and overdiagnosis after implementation of population-based screening in Denmark.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2020Article
- Impact of chronic diseases on effect of breast cancer screening.Cancer medicine · 2020Article
- An exploration for quantification of overdiagnosis and its effect for breast cancer screening.Chinese journal of cancer research = Chung-kuo yen cheng yen chiu · 2020Article
- Development of breast cancer mortality considering the implementation of mammography screening programs - a comparison of western European countries.BMC public health · 2019Article
- Deep Synthesis of Realistic Medical Images: A Novel Tool in Clinical Research and Training.Frontiers in neuroinformatics · 2018Article
- Outcome of breast cancer screening in Denmark.BMC cancer · 2017Article
- Benefit-to-harm ratio of the Danish breast cancer screening programme.International journal of cancer · 2017Article
- [Systematic errors in clinical studies : A comprehensive survey].Der Ophthalmologe : Zeitschrift der Deutschen Ophthalmologischen Gesellschaft · 2017Review
- Missteps in Current Estimates of Cancer Overdiagnosis.Academic radiology · 2017Review
- [Systematic errors in clinical studies : A comprehensive survey].Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2017Review
- Diabetes and Breast Cancer Subtypes.PloS one · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo use data from two longstanding, population based screening programmes to study overdiagnosis in screening mammography.
designPopulation based cohort study.
settingCopenhagen municipality (from 1991) and Funen County (from 1993), Denmark.
participants57,763 women targeted by organised screening, aged 56-69 when the screening programmes started, and followed up to 2009.
main outcome measuresOverdiagnosis of breast cancer in women targeted by screening, assessed by relative risks compared with historical control groups from screening regions, national control groups from non-screening regions, and historical national control groups.
resultsIn total, 3279 invasive breast carcinomas and ductal carcinomas in situ occurred. The start of screening led to prevalence peaks in breast cancer incidence: relative risk 2.06 (95% confidence interval 1.64 to 2.59) for Copenhagen and 1.84 (1.46 to 2.32) for Funen. During subsequent screening rounds, relative risks were slightly above unity: 1.04 (0.85 to 1.27) for Copenhagen and 1.14 (0.98 to 1.32) for Funen. A compensatory dip was seen after the end of invitation to screening: relative risk 0.80 (0.65 to 0.98) for Copenhagen and 0.67 (0.55 to 0.81) for Funen during the first four years. The relative risk of breast cancer accumulated over the entire follow-up period was 1.06 (0.90 to 1.25) for Copenhagen and 1.01 (0.93 to 1.10) for Funen. Relative risks for participants corrected for selection bias were estimated to be 1.08 for Copenhagen and 1.02 for Funen; for participants followed for at least eight years after the end of screening, they were 1.05 and 1.01. A pooled estimate gave 1.040 (0.99 to 1.09) for all targeted women and 1.023 (0.97 to 1.08) for targeted women followed for at least eight years after the end of screening.
conclusionsOn the basis of combined data from the two screening programmes, this study indicated that overdiagnosis most likely amounted to 2.3% (95% confidence interval -3% to 8%) in targeted women. Among participants, it was most likely 1-5%. At least eight years after the end of screening were needed to compensate for the excess incidence during screening.
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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.