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Letters

Screening programme not cost effective

BMJ 1994; 308 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.308.6922.202 (Published 15 January 1994) Cite this as: BMJ 1994;308:202
  1. D J Watmough,
  2. K Kumar
  1. Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait.

    EDITOR, - Examination of the data from the United Kingdom's breast screening programme from March 1991 to April 19921 reported by J Chamberlain and colleagues allows some tentative conclusions to be drawn about the costs and potential benefits. Altogether 1 028 984 women accepted an invitation for mammographic screening. With a recall rate of 6.2% there would have been an extra 63 797 tests, making a total of 1 092 781 tests. It is reported that 6605 cancers were detected. Of these, 1465 (22%) were impalpable. It follows that 78% of cancers …

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