Four Principles to Consider Before Advising XXXX on Screening Mammography.

@entity5 @entity1 @entity1442 @entity204
UNASSIGNED: This article reviews four important screening principles applicable to screening mammography in order to facilitate informed choice. The first principle is that screening may help, hurt, or have no effect. In order to reduce mortality and mastectomy rates, screening must reduce the rate of @entity1442 , which likely has not happened. Through overdiagnosis, screening produces substantial harm by increasing both lumpectomy and mastectomy rates, which offsets the often-promised benefit of less invasive therapy. Next, all-cause mortality is the most reliable way to measure the efficacy of a screening intervention. Disease-specific mortality is biased due to difficulties in attribution of cause of @entity204 and to increased mortality due to overdiagnosis and the resulting overtreatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. To enhance participation, the benefit from screening is often presented in relative instead of absolute terms. Third, some screening statistics must be interpreted with caution. Increased survival time and the percentage of early-stage @entity5 at detection sound plausible, but are affected by lead-time and length biases. In addition, analyses that only include @entity1 who attend screening cannot reliably correct for selection bias. The final principle is that accounting for @entity5 biology is important for accurate estimates of lead time, and the potential benefit from screening. Since "early detection" is actually late in a @entity5 's lifetime, the time window when screen detection might extend a @entity1 's life is narrow, as many @entity5 that can form metastases will already have done so. Instead of encouraging screening mammography, physicians should help @entity1 make an informed decision as with any medical intervention.
