Patient Outcomes from Second Film-readers and Test Threshold Relaxation in Breast Screening (POSTBOx)

January 21, 2025 updated by: Sian Taylor-Phillips, University of Warwick

Patient Outcomes from Second Film-readers and Test Threshold Relaxation in Breast Screening: an Observational Retrospective Cohort Study

Analysis of women's medical records to understand the impact of previous changes to breast cancer screening (increase from one to two clinicians examining each woman's mammograms, and what proportion of women they recall for further tests)

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Retrospective observational study examining the records and outcomes of women who attended breast cancer screening between 1988 and 2016. Linkage of records from the breast screening service, the cancer registry, and mortality. Analysis of whether changing the threshold for whether to recall women for further tests or the number of clinicians examining the mammograms for signs of cancer affects outcomes.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
13094122

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
    • Warwickshire
      • Coventry, Warwickshire, United Kingdom, CV47AL
        • Univesity of Warwick

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

47 years to 73 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Probability Sample

Study Population

Women who attended the English NHS Breast screening programme between 1988 and 2016 aged between 47 and 73.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Women who attended the English National Health Service (NHS) breast cancer screening service at least once between 1988 and 2016, aged between 47 and 73
  • All eligible episodes of screening for each woman (we expect women to be screened around 7 times each)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Women who did not attend routine English NHS Breast screening service within the specified date and age range, even if they attended symptomatic breast cancer services, high risk (family history) breast screening services, or if they were referred for mammograms by their general practitioner

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort

Group / Cohort

A group or subgroup of participants in an observational study that is assessed for biomedical or health outcomes.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Single reading
Only one clinician examined the woman's mammograms for signs of cancer and recommended whether to recall her for further tests or not.
Diagnostic test: Breast Screening Mammography with single reader
One clinician examined each woman's mammograms for signs of cancer
Diagnostic test: Test threshold
Threshold used by readers examining the breast screening mammograms, defined using their previous proportion of cases recalled
Double reading
Two clinicians examined the woman's mammograms for signs of cancer and recommended whether to recall her for further tests or not.
Diagnostic test: Test threshold
Threshold used by readers examining the breast screening mammograms, defined using their previous proportion of cases recalled
Diagnostic test: Breast screening mammography with two readers
Two clinicians seperately examined each woman's mammograms for signs of cancer

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of women overdiagnosed (the cancer would not have become symptomatic within the woman's lifetime) using compensatory drop method
Time Frame: 13 years, and up to 30 years
Overdiagnosis of breast cancer (measured as difference in total cancer incidence, screen and symptomatic). Will also report mechanism of action (number of screen detected cancers, number of symptomatically detected cancers at 3,13, and 30 years follow-up)
13 years, and up to 30 years
Cancers detected at screening
Time Frame: 1 day screening episode
Biopsy proven cancers detected at screening
1 day screening episode
False positive recalls
Time Frame: 1 day screening episode
Recall of women for further tests after screening which did not result in detection of cancer
1 day screening episode
Breast cancer mortality
Time Frame: 13 years, and up to 30 years
Mortality due to breast cancer (dependent on securing follow-on funding)
13 years, and up to 30 years
All cause mortality
Time Frame: 13 years, and up to 30 years
Mortality due to any cause (dependent on securing follow on funding)
13 years, and up to 30 years
Characteristics of cancer detected
Time Frame: 1 day screening episode, 3year, 13 year and up to 30 year follow up
Size, grade and stage (reported overall, screen detected, and symptomatic detected).
1 day screening episode, 3year, 13 year and up to 30 year follow up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Breast cancer morbidity
Time Frame: Up to 30 years
Treatment received as a proxy for treatment associated morbidity (reported overall, screen detected and symptomatically detected, if follow on funding obtained)
Up to 30 years
Breast cancer free survival
Time Frame: Up to 30 years follow-up
Survival without a diagnosis of breast cancer
Up to 30 years follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of Warwick

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Public Health England

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Sian Taylor-Phillips, PhD, University of Warwick

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
October 1, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 30, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
December 30, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
April 24, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 27, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
April 28, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 21, 2025

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 50619

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

We do not have Office of Data Release permissions to share these data with other researchers

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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