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- Title
What is the true number needed to screen and treat to save a life with prostate-specific antigen testing?
- Authors
Loeb, Stacy; Vonesh, Edward F; Metter, E Jeffrey; Carter, H Ballentine; Gann, Peter H; Catalona, William J
- Abstract
The European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) reported a 20% mortality reduction with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening. However, they estimated a number needed to screen (NNS) of 1,410 and a number needed to treat (NNT) of 48 to prevent one prostate cancer death at 9 years. Although NNS and NNT are useful statistics to assess the benefits and harms of an intervention, in a survival study setting such as the ERSPC, NNS and NNT are time specific, and reporting values at one time point may lead to misinterpretation of results. Our objective was to re-examine the effect of varying follow-up times on NNS and NNT using data extrapolated from the ERSPC report.
- Publication
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2011, Vol 29, Issue 4, p464
- ISSN
1527-7755
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1200/JCO.2010.30.6373