The UK Age Trial: screening women in their forties

Efforts have been made to make the age of 50 years seem to be a legitimate threshold for screening through the use of unplanned retrospective subgroup analyses of trials that did not have sufficient statistical power,2 and by grouping women and averaging the data to make it seem as if there was a ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The lancet oncology 2015-09, Vol.16 (9), p.1012-1013
Main Author: Kopans, Daniel B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Breast - pathology
Breast cancer
Breast Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging
Female
Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Medicine
Humans
Mammography
Medical screening
Womens health
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Summary:Efforts have been made to make the age of 50 years seem to be a legitimate threshold for screening through the use of unplanned retrospective subgroup analyses of trials that did not have sufficient statistical power,2 and by grouping women and averaging the data to make it seem as if there was a major jump in cancer detection at the age of 50 years although no data show that any of the variables of screening change abruptly at any age.3 No biological or scientific evidence supports the use of the age of 50 years as a threshold for screening.4 The Health Insurance Plan trial showed that for women aged 50-64 years, breast cancer mortality began to drop almost immediately after the start of screening, whereas for women aged 40-49 years, the mortality reduction was delayed for 5-7 years.
ISSN:1470-2045
1474-5488
DOI:10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00057-1