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In Reply:

Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC

We appreciate the letter by Brodersen et al. We agree that it is important to understand the impact of health interventions on the individuals undertaking them. We also acknowledge that some individuals experience "measurable short-term adverse consequences...apparent for at least 1 week..."¹ In our review, we conceptualized such short-term events under the rubric of "transient effects." We defined short-term events as those "occurring between several days preceding the preventive or detection activity and up to 6 months postintervention."² While the authors mention that they "missed a discussion on the validity of... .measures," we gently remind the authors that our review was intended as a summary of the existing literature on this broad topic area, and as a first step in assessing measurement of such short-term outcomes. As such, it was beyond the scope of our article to review the validity of the large number of diverse tools used in this capacity. We firmly agree that this is an important next step in moving the field forward, and applaud the work of Cockburn et al for addressing one aspect of this broad topic area—false-positive screening mammography.

Author's Disclosures of Potential Conflicts of Interest

The author indicated no potential conflicts of interest.

REFERENCES

1. Brodersen J, Thorsen H, Cockburn J: The adequacy of measurement of short and long-term consequences of false-positive screening mammography. J Med Screen 11:39-44, 2004[CrossRef][Medline]

2. Cullen J, Schwartz MD, Lawrence WF, et al: Short-term impact of cancer prevention and screening activities on quality of life. J Clin Oncol 22:943-952, 2004[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Related Correspondence

• Validity of Short-Term Consequences of Cancer Prevention and Screening Activities?
  John Broderson, Hanne Thorsen, and Jill Cockburn
  JCO 2005 23: 244 [Full Text]

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