Radiogenic breast cancer effects of mammographic screening.

The radiocarcinogenic implications of published breast-screening policies were compared. With the use of radioepidemiologic data published recently by the National Institutes of Health, expected excess breast cancers were projected. With a base-line mammogram at age 35 and annual mammography after age 40, as few as 150 or as many as 1,000 radiogenic breast cancers were projected for a screening population of 1 million women, depending on the mammographic system employed and the screening schedule.