An article published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) today says a US charity ?overstates the benefit of mammography and ignores harms altogether.? The charity?s questionable claim is that early detection is the key to surviving breast cancer and to support this, it cites a five-year survival rate of 98% when breast cancer is caught early, and 23% when it?s not.
We?re not interested in judging the charity?s actions or intentions but would like discuss the importance of statistical literacy in communicating medical risks.
There are two critical claims in the argument presented by the experts in the BMJ report ? that routine breast screening results in high false positive diagnoses and that five-year survival rates are biased. It?s necessary to understand them both to be able to judge whether the statistics quoted by the charity are misleading.
The Conversation
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This entry was posted in Breast cancer. Bookmark the permalink.Source: http://junkscience.com/2012/08/06/understanding-risk-statistics-about-breast-cancer-screening/
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