Noncancer-Related Mortality in Randomized Clinical Trials: A Meta-Analysis.

ABSTRACT: Cancer screening is a critical tool in cancer control, reducing cancer-specific mortality. However, it also has potential harms, including overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Measuring the effect of screening based on all-cause mortality is insensitive to both benefits and harms and requires substantially large sample sizes. Understanding the impact of screening on noncancer-related (off-target) mortality is essential for evaluating its overall benefit. To assess the association between cancer screening and off-target mortality by comparing mortality rates between screened and unscreened populations based on randomized clinical trials (RCTs). The analysis examined all RCTs included in a previously published (August 28, 2023) meta-analysis of cancer screening trials that included the end point

SUBMITTER: Lei J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12379107 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature