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How long does a person need to live before deriving a survival benefit from breast and colorectal cancer screening? In this meta-analysis of randomized trials in which screened and nonscreened population survival data were reported, investigators estimated the time lag to survival benefit.
They analyzed four colorectal cancer screening trials in which fecal occult blood testing was performed annually or biennially (31,000–150,000 participants; age range, 45–80) and five breast cancer screening trials in which mammography was performed every 12 to 33 months (14,000–61,000 participants; age range, 40–74). For both colorectal cancer and breast cancer, about 10 years were necessary to reach 1 cancer-related death prevented per 1000 people screen…