Figure 5.

Predicted secondary performance measures: total intervention rate and positive biopsy fraction (TIR, PBF). The TIR is for 1000 screening mammograms for women ages 35–65 and includes the interventions of tissue biopsy and needle aspiration. The PBF percentage is a widely accepted performance measure due to the desire to avoid the high financial and emotional cost and invasive nature of negative interventions. The model predicts that the PBF does not reach the minimum recommended level of 25% until age 55. Stratifying the recommendations for screening so that only higher risk women would be encouraged to screen at younger ages would increase the prevalence and therefore improve all performance measures.