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Estimating Net Benefits and Harms of Screening Mammography in Women Age 40 to 49 Years
- Benjamin Djulbegovic, MD, PhD;
- Iztok Hozo, PhD; and
- Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH
- From H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612.
TO THE EDITOR:
In the updated systematic review on the effects of screening mammography in women age 40 to 49 years, Armstrong and colleagues (1) used relative effect measures to express the most important benefits of screening mammography, while expressing the most important harms of screening mammography in terms of absolute effect measures. Notably, they estimated that screening mammography is associated with relative risk reduction in breast cancer mortality of 7% to 23%, whereas 30 to 200 women age 40 to 49 years will die after annual screening mammography as a result of radiation-induced breast cancer (1). It would be more appropriate, however, to express benefits …
