Results of the UK Age trial suggest a significant benefit of annual mammography initiated at 39–41 years of age in preventing breast-cancer deaths occurring before the age of 50 years; however, this approach had no effect on the risk of breast-cancer death occurring before the age of 60 years and leads to prolonged deteriorations in quality of life owing to overdiagnosis.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Moss, S. M. et al. Effect of mammographic screening from age 40 years on breast cancer mortality in the UK Age trial at 17 years' follow-up: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Oncol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00128-X (2015).
Moss, S. M. et al. Effect of mammographic screening from age 40 years on breast cancer mortality at 10 years' follow-up: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet 368, 2053–2060 (2006).
Gøtzsche, P. C. & Jørgensen, K. J. Screening for breast cancer with mammography. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 6. Art. No.: CD001877 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD001877.pub5, (2013).
Skrabanek, P. Breast cancer screening with mammography. Lancet 341, 1531 (1993).
Moss, S., Waller, M., Anderson, T. J., Cuckle, H. ; Trial Management Group. Randomised controlled trial of mammographic screening in women from age 40: predicted mortality based on surrogate outcome measures. Br. J. Cancer 92, 955–960 (2005).
Berrington de González, A. & Reeves, G. Mammographic screening before age 50 years in the UK: comparison of the radiation risks with the mortality benefits. Br. J. Cancer 93, 590–596 (2005).
Mattsson, A., Leitz, W. & Rutqvist, L. E. Radiation risk and mammographic screening of women from 40 to 49 years of age: effect on breast cancer rates and years of life. Br. J. Cancer 82, 220–226 (2000).
Beemsterboer, P. M., Warmerdam, P. G., Boer, R. & de Koning, H. J. Radiation risk of mammography related to benefit in screening programmes: a favourable balance? J. Med. Screen. 5, 81–87 (1998).
Day, N. E. Overdiagnosis and breast cancer screening. Breast Cancer Res. 7, 228–229 (2005).
Miller, A. B. et al. Twenty five year follow-up for breast cancer incidence and mortality of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study: randomised screening trial. BMJ 348, g366 (2014).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
PowerPoint slides
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Autier, P. Doubtful health benefit of screening from 40 years of age. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 12, 570–572 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2015.162
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2015.162
This article is cited by
-
Defining disease in the context of overdiagnosis
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (2017)