The age cut-off for screening for breast cancer in Australia was increased from 69 years to 74 years in 2013. In this assessment, you are asked to design an observational study that will examine if:
- · Breast cancer screening leads to reduced mortality from breast cancer among women aged 70 to 74 years;
- · Breast cancer screening leads to reduced mortality from any cause aged 70 to 74 years.
Good to hear that!
I hope that my research contributed a bit to that decision:
Boer R, de Koning HJ, van Oortmarssen GJ, van der Maas PJ. In search of the best upper age limit for breast cancer screening. Eur J Cancer. 1995 Nov;31A(12):2040-3. doi: 10.1016/0959-8049(95)00457-2. PMID: 8562162.
Boer R, de Koning H, Threlfall A, Warmerdam P, Street A, Friedman E, Woodman C. Cost effectiveness of shortening screening interval or extending age range of NHS breast screening programme: computer simulation study. BMJ. 1998 Aug 8;317(7155):376-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.317.7155.376. PMID: 9694752; PMCID: PMC28630.
Boer R, de Koning HJ, van der Maas PJ. A longer breast carcinoma screening interval for women age older than 65 years? Cancer. 1999 Oct 15;86(8):1506-10. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19991015)86:83.0.co;2-2. PMID: 10526279.
If you decide for a case-control approach, please be aware of problems with that method:
Connor RJ, Boer R, Prorok PC, Weed DL. Investigation of design and bias issues in case-control studies of cancer screening using microsimulation. Am J Epidemiol. 2000 May 15;151(10):991-8. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a010143. PMID: 10853638.
And maybe you can take some away from my colleagues in Rotterdam who evaluated a similar change in screening policy in the Netherlands:
Otto SJ, Fracheboud J, Verbeek AL, Boer R, Reijerink-Verheij JC, Otten JD, Broeders MJ, de Koning HJ; National Evaluation Team for Breast Cancer Screening. Mammography screening and risk of breast cancer death: a population-based case- control study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Jan;21(1):66-73. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-11-0476. Epub 2011 Dec 6. PMID: 22147362.
Paap E, Verbeek AL, Botterweck AA, van Doorne-Nagtegaal HJ, Imhof-Tas M, de Koning HJ, Otto SJ, de Munck L, van der Steen A, Holland R, den Heeten GJ, Broeders MJ. Breast cancer screening halves the risk of breast cancer death: a case-referent study. Breast. 2014 Aug;23(4):439-44. doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2014.03.002. Epub 2014 Apr 6. PMID: 24713277.
Fracheboud J, Otto SJ, van Dijck JA, Broeders MJ, Verbeek AL, de Koning HJ; National Evaluation Team for Breast cancer screening (NETB). Decreased rates of advanced breast cancer due to mammography screening in The Netherlands. Br J Cancer. 2004 Aug 31;91(5):861-7. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6602075. PMID: 15292936; PMCID: PMC2409867.
Otto SJ, Fracheboud J, Looman CW, Broeders MJ, Boer R, Hendriks JH, Verbeek AL, de Koning HJ; National Evaluation Team for Breast Cancer Screening. Initiation of population-based mammography screening in Dutch municipalities and effect on breast-cancer mortality: a systematic review. Lancet. 2003 Apr 26;361(9367):1411-7. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13132-7. PMID: 12727393.
Van Ourti T, O'Donnell O, Koç H, Fracheboud J, de Koning HJ. Effect of screening mammography on breast cancer mortality: Quasi-experimental evidence from rollout of the Dutch population-based program with 17-year follow-up of a cohort. Int J Cancer. 2020 Apr 15;146(8):2201-2208. doi: 10.1002/ijc.32584. Epub 2019 Aug 7. PMID: 31330046; PMCID: PMC7065105.
Sankatsing VDV, van Ravesteyn NT, Heijnsdijk EAM, Looman CWN, van Luijt PA, Fracheboud J, den Heeten GJ, Broeders MJM, de Koning HJ. The effect of population-based mammography screening in Dutch municipalities on breast cancer mortality: 20 years of follow-up. Int J Cancer. 2017 Aug 15;141(4):671-677. doi: 10.1002/ijc.30754. PMID: 28457023.
de Gelder R, Fracheboud J, Heijnsdijk EA, den Heeten G, Verbeek AL, Broeders MJ, Draisma G, de Koning HJ. Digital mammography screening: weighing reduced mortality against increased overdiagnosis. Prev Med. 2011 Sep;53(3):134-40. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2011.06.009. Epub 2011 Jun 21. PMID: 21718717.
Fracheboud J, Groenewoud JH, Boer R, Draisma G, de Bruijn AE, Verbeek AL, de Koning HJ. Seventy-five years is an appropriate upper age limit for population- based mammography screening. Int J Cancer. 2006 Apr 15;118(8):2020-5. doi: 10.1002/ijc.21560. PMID: 16287064.
Oh, it's great to hear you from sir Robert Boer. I already cited your work multiple times.
Well, I adopted case-control and also cited some limitations of it from your paper.
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