Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (9)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ren, J.-J.
Right arrow Articles by Peer, P. G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ren, J.-J.
Right arrow Articles by Peer, P. G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

International Journal of Epidemiology 2000;29:803-806
© International Epidemiological Association 2000

A study on effectiveness of screening mammograms

Jian-Jian Rena and Petronella GM Peerb

a Department of Mathematics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA. E-mail: renj{at}ultral.math.tulane.edu
b University of Nijmegen, Department of Medical Statistics, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. E-mail: N.Peer{at}MIE.KUN.NL

Background So far, no randomized controlled trials with a mean mammographic screening interval of >=2 years has demonstrated statistically significant mortality reduction for women younger than age 50. The issue of screening frequency is vital in detection of primary breast cancer.

Methods The study group consisted of cancers diagnosed in women who participated in a serial screening programme with a mean screening interval of 2 years. To study the effectiveness of the screening, a comparison is made between the distribution of age at which the tumour could be detected when biennial mammographic screening is the only detection method, and the distribution of age at which the tumour would be detected by either biennial mammographic screening or the development of symptoms. Some recently developed statistic methods, such as bootstrap, the maximum likelihood distribution estimator for doubly censored data and the EM algorithm, are used in estimation of these distributions.

Results The hypothesis tests and confidence intervals show that the difference between the two distributions was statistically significant for women younger than 50 and 50–70 years old, but not for women over 70 years.

Conclusions The statistical analysis indicates that for women younger than 50, and 50–70 years of age, a screening mammogram every other year is not frequent enough to detect primary breast cancer, but for women over 70 years, it might be sufficient.

Keywords Bootstrap, breast cancer, doubly censored data, screening mammograms

Accepted 13 March 2000


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev.Home page
C. E. Jacobi, N. J.D. Nagelkerke, J. C. van Houwelingen, and G. H. de Bock
Breast Cancer Screening, Outside the Population-Screening Program, of Women from Breast Cancer Families without Proven BRCA1/BRCA2 Mutations: a Simulation Study.
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., March 1, 2006; 15(3): 429 - 436.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.