Changes to This Summary (03/30/2012)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Effect of Screening on Breast Cancer Mortality

Added text about an ecologic study that compared three pairs of neighboring European countries and found that each country had a reduction in breast cancer mortality, with no difference between matched pairs that could be attributed to screening (cited Autier et al. as reference 31).

Added text about a systematic review that examined ecologic and large cohort studies of women aged 50 to 69 years and found that any relative reduction in breast cancer mortality due to screening in this age group would likely be no greater than 10% (cited Harris et al. as reference 32).

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Screening and Prevention Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.