Report of the BMJ's full editorial committee - 7 February 2000

Present: C. Martyn
            Michael O'Brien
            Hazel Inskip
            Gavin Yamey
 

Screening mammography: Women's reactions to false positive results and ductal carcinoma in-situ

Decision:  Revise to author
Nature of decision:  Unanimous

Summary of the points:

  1. We thought that this was an interesting and clearly written study.

    2.  
  2. We have some doubts about the generalisability of the findings.

    3.  
  3. We would like the authors to explain current US practices for breast screening, in particular how the women taking part are warned about the dangers of false positives.

    4.  
  4. We had a few minor queries. We could not understand what the weighted column in table 1 meant. How did you weight the demographic data? In view of the recent article in the Lancet we wondered whether the "correct answer" for the reduction in breast cancer attributable to screening might need to be altered.