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. 2011 Nov 23;343:d7017. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d7017

Table 1.

 Prior distributions, posterior estimates, and posterior predictive distributions of overdiagnosis for model parameters in base case analysis model

Prior distribution* Mean (95% CI) estimated values†
Type Mean
Parameter
Lifetime probability of breast cancer for women born in 1900 Uniform (6.0%, 12.0%) 9.0% 7.0% (6.0% to 8.0%)
Increase in lifetime probability for women born 1900-50 Uniform (0.5, 2.0) 1.25 1.06 (0.50 to 1.69)
Proportion of increase in lifetime probability from carcinomas in situ Uniform (0.0%, 100.0%) 50.0% 41.0% (5.0% to 85.0%)
Age at onset of preclinical cancer: parameter 1 for scaled β distribution Uniform (7.0, 8.0) 7.50 7.48 (6.93 to 7.99)
Age at onset of preclinical cancer: parameter 2 for scaled β distribution Uniform (5.5, 7.0) 6.25 5.94 (5.79 to 6.12)
Proportion of invasive cancer at onset of preclinical phase β (3, 7) 30.0% 52.0% (23.0% to 74.0%)
Proportion of in situ cancer evolving to invasive during preclinical phase β (8, 2) 80.0% 91.0% (84.0% to 97.0%)
Proportion of non-progressive carcinoma in situ Uniform (0.0%, 50.0%) 25.0% 6.0% (0.0% to 17.0%)
Proportion of non-progressive invasive cancer Uniform (0.0%, 50.0%) 25.0% 3.0% (3.0% to 4.0%)
Probability of undergoing screening mammography in 1987-8 and 1989-90 Uniform (15.0%, 25.0%) 20.0% 20.0% (19.0% to 21.0%)
Probability of undergoing screening mammography in 1991-2 Uniform (19.0%, 30.0%) 25.0% 21.0% (18.0% to 24.0%)
Probability of undergoing screening mammography in 2005-6 Uniform (46.0%, 74.0%) 60.0% 57.0% (46.0% to 71.0%)
Overdiagnosis for in situ cancers
Among cancer diagnosed 28.0% (2.2% to 59.8%)
Among cancer screened 31.9% (2.9% to 62.3%)
Overdiagnosis for invasive cancers
Among cancer diagnosed 1.5% (0.3% to 2.9%)
Among cancer screened 3.3% (0.7% to 6.5%)

CI=credibility interval.

*Proportion of overdiagnosis for carcinoma in situ and invasive cancer was not parameter of model and consequently did not have prior distributions. Values derived from proportion of non-progressive disease for each type of cancer.

†Obtained from posterior distributions for 12 parameters and from posterior predictive distributions for proportion of overdiagnosis.