Screening mammography and mortality

Gøtzsche, Peter C

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05145.x

To the Editor: In a recent letter in the Journal,1 Rodger writes that breast screening is unlikely to affect overall mortality and notes that this "gives the lie to the conclusions of Olsen and Gøtzsche's overview, which are based only on overall mortality".

Correspondence:

Competing interests:

None identified. The views expressed are mine and are not necessarily the views or the official policy of the Cochrane Collaboration.

1. Rodger A. Screening mammography and mortality [letter]. Med J Aust 2002; 177: 333.<eMJA full text>
2. Olsen O, Gøtzsche PC. Screening for breast cancer with mammography (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 4, 2001. Oxford: Update Software.
3. Andersson I, Aspegren K, Janzon L, et al. Mammographic screening and mortality from breast cancer: the Malmo mammographic screening trial. BMJ 1988; 297: 943-948.
4. Miller AB, To T, Baines CJ, Wall C. Canadian National Breast Screening Study–2: 13-year results of a randomized trial in women aged 50-59 years. J Natl Cancer Inst 2000; 92: 1490-1499.
5. Miller AB, To T, Baines CJ, Wall C. The Canadian National Breast Screening Study: update on breast cancer mortality. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 1997; (22): 37-41.
6. Tabar L, Fagerberg CJG, Day NE. The results of periodic one-view mammographic screening in Sweden. Part 2: Evaluation of the results. In: Day NE, Miller AB, editors. Screening for breast cancer. Toronto: Hans Huber, 1988: 39-44.
7. Tabar L, Fagerberg CJ, Gad A, et al. Reduction in mortality from breast cancer after mass screening with mammography. Randomised trial from the Breast Cancer Screening Working Group of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. Lancet 1985; 1: 829-832.
8. Nyström L, Andersson I, Bjurstam N, et al. Long-term effects of mammography screening: updated overview of the Swedish randomised trials. Lancet 2002; 359: 909-919.
9. Tabar L, Vitak B, Chen HH, et al. The Swedish Two-County Trial twenty years later. Updated mortality results and new insights from long-term follow-up. Radiol Clin North Am 2000; 38: 625-651.

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.