Overdiagnosis of Invasive Breast Cancer due to Mammography Screening

Abstract

Letters7 August 2012Overdiagnosis of Invasive Breast Cancer due to Mammography ScreeningMette Kalager, MD, Hans-Olov Adami, MD, PhD, Michael Bretthauer, MD, PhD, and Rulla M. Tamimi, ScDMette Kalager, MDFrom Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115; Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, N-0027 Oslo, Norway; and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.Search for more papers by this author, Hans-Olov Adami, MD, PhDFrom Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115; Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, N-0027 Oslo, Norway; and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.Search for more papers by this author, Michael Bretthauer, MD, PhDFrom Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115; Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, N-0027 Oslo, Norway; and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.Search for more papers by this author, and Rulla M. Tamimi, ScDFrom Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115; Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, N-0027 Oslo, Norway; and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-157-3-201208070-00025 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail IN RESPONSE:Ms. Falk and colleagues state that the correct number of women invited to the screening program is 592 155. However, based on data provided to us by the Cancer Registry of Norway, approximately 496 157 women were invited to the screening program in our study period. Furthermore, they may have misunderstood our estimates of overdiagnosis, which were based on 4 groups of women, comparing current with historical groups. The actual number of invited women is not included in any of our estimates. As shown in our article, we estimated the number of overdiagnosed women as the number of women with ...