Cancer screening programmes have become routine practice throughout the developed world – aiming to detect the presence of the disease prior to the manifestation of symptoms, and to increase the likelihood of successful treatment. Naturally, these programmes require regular monitoring to ensure that screening quality is maintained, and to advance the early-warning system as much as possible. Quantitative Methods for the Evaluation of Cancer Screening is a professional title designed to provide the researchers of these screening programmes with up-to-date methods and tools for improving evaluation. The book presents an introduction to cancer screening and to the methods that are employed for its monitoring, followed by an in-depth account of the more complicated modelling approaches. Each chapter is written by an international expert in the field, and imparts practical specialist information that the reader can apply to the evaluation of their own programmes. Case studies illustrate the methods in practice and provide further illumination of the fields of breast, cervix, large bowel, and neuroblastoma screening.
Table of Contents:
Contributors Preface
1. Introduction and brief history of cancer screening evaluation techniques
Stephen W. Duffy, Jacques Esteve, Catherine Hill and Nicholas E. Day
2. Important influences on effectiveness and costs to be considered in the evaluation of cancer screening
Rob, Boer, Harry J. de Koning, Marjolein van Ballegooijen and Paul J. van der Maas
3. Contamination and non-compliance in screening trials
Jack Cuzick
4. Evaluating periodic cancer screening without a randomised control group: a simplified design and analysis
Stuart G. Baker
5. Markov chain models of breast tumour progression and its arrest by screening
Stephen W. Duffy, Hsiu-Hsi Chen, Teresa C. Prevost and Laszlo Tabar
6. Metastases at diagnosis: a key to understanding the natural history of breast cancer
Serge Koscielny, Ariane Auquier and Catherine Hill
7. Use of an illness-death model to predict the effects of different breast screening intervals
Hsiu-Hsi Chen, Ming-Fang Yen and Laszlo Tabar
8. Screening evaluation and monitoring: some practical considerations
Jenny McCann and Diane Stockton
9. Use of routine data to monitor and evaluate cervical screening
Peter D. Sasieni
10. Interpretation of the effect of population screening using routine incidence and mortality data
Timo Hakulinen
11. Optimal use of Pap smear screening for cervical cancer
Stephen D. Walter
12. Population-based breast cancer screening programmes: estimates of sensitivity, over-diagnosis and early prediction of the benefit
Eugenio Paci, Stephen W. Duffy, Daniela Giorgi, Teresa C. Prevost and Marco Rosselli del Turco
13. Assessment of a colorectal cancer screening programme taking account of the natural history of the disease
Guy Launoy and Teresa C. Prevost
14. Screening for neuroblastoma in children: insight gained from the modeling of various screening strategies
Jacques Esteve, Stephen W. Duffy and Catherine Hill
Index
