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Am Fam Physician. 2021;103(5):263

Incorrect statistics. In the article, “Breast Cancer Screening: Common Questions and Answers” (January 1, 2021, p. 33), the figure listed for breast cancer deaths per number of women screened with mammography should have been per 10,000 women rather than per 100,000 women in the “What's New On This Topic” table (page 33) and in the last sentence of the first paragraph in the “Does Screening Mammography Reduce Breast Cancer-Related Mortality” section (page 37). The sentence in the table should have read: “A 2016 meta-analysis calculated that per 10,000 women screened with mammography, three breast cancer deaths are avoided over 10 years in women 40 to 49 years of age, eight deaths are avoided in women 50 to 59 years, 21 deaths are avoided in women 60 to 69 years, and 13 deaths are avoided in women 70 to 74 years.” The sentence on page 37 should have read: “A meta-analysis performed for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) calculated that per 10,000 women screened with mammography, only three breast cancer deaths are avoided over 10 years in women 40 to 49 years of age, eight deaths are avoided in women 50 to 59 years, 21 deaths are avoided in women 60 to 69 years, and 13 deaths are avoided in women 70 to 74 years.19

Also, the Breast Density section of Table 1 (page 34) should have included a fifth category. The last line of that section should have included < 5%, with a Risk of breast cancer (relative risk unless otherwise noted) of 1.0.

Finally, the first sentence of the last paragraph of the “What Are the Potential Harms of Breast Cancer Screening?” section (page 37) should have listed that screening mammography leads to an overdiagnosis of 10% to 30% rather than “as much as 10%” and should have listed reference 26. The sentence should have read: “Systematic reviews have found that screening mammography leads to an overdiagnosis rate of 10% to 30%.24,26 The online version of this article has been corrected.

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