Estimating breast cancer mortality reduction and overdiagnosis due to screening for different strategies in the United Kingdom

Background: The benefits and harms of population-wide mammography screening have been long debated. This study evaluated the impact of screening frequency and age range on breast cancer mortality reduction and overdiagnosis. Methods: We developed a Markov simulation model for the evaluation of mammography screening in a cohort of British women born in 1935-40. Results: For triennial screening in women aged 47-73, breast cancer mortality reduction and overdiagnosis was 18.1% (95% confidence interval: 17.3%, 19.0%) and 5.6% (5.1%, 6.1%), of all breast cancer deaths and diagnoses, respectively, from age 40 to 85 years. For annual screening in the same age range, estimates for both outcomes increased considerably to 35.0% (34.2%, 35.7%) and 7.6% (7.1%, 8.1%), respectively. For the age extension of triennial screening from 50-70 to 47-73, we estimated 5 (3, 7) incremental breast cancer deaths avoided and 14 (9, 19) incremental cases overdiagnosed per 10 000 women invited for screening. Conclusions: Estimates of mortality reduction and overdiagnosis were highly dependent on screening frequency, age range, and uptake, which may explain differences between some previous estimates obtained from randomised trials and from service screening.