Table 3.

Initial Entry Round (Year 1) Through Last Entry Round (Year 4) of Screening: False-Positive and Resulting Diagnostic Follow-Up Rates

Physician Response
Repeated ScreeningImagingMinimally Invasive ProcedureaModerately Invasive ProcedurebMajor Surgical Procedurec
SubgroupEver False Positive No. (%)No. (%)d% of FPseNo. (%)d% of FPseNo. (%)d% of FPseNo. (%)d% of FPseNo. (%)d% of FPse
CA-125 = cancer antigen 125; CXR = chest radiograph; DRE = digital rectal examination; FP = false positive; FSG = flexible sigmoidoscopy; PSA = prostate-specific antigen; TVU=transvaginal ultrasonography.
Note: These percentages reflect only the subset of diagnostic procedures directly caused by a false-positive result; they do not include procedures associated with a true-positive or negative.
a Example: simple endoscopy with conscious sedation (see Table 1 for the complete list of procedure classifications).
b Example: tissue removal, more involved instrumentation, or general anesthesia, including laparoscopy.
c Example: prostatectomy, or laparotomy with colectomy or oophorectomy.
d Percentage among participants in the intervention arm that took at least 1 screening examination.
e Percentage among participants in the intervention arm that received at least 1 false-positive examination (change in denominator). This percentage (and the accompanying crude numbers) does not include procedures that resulted in a true positive (diagnosis of cancer).
f In each case, the denominator is the total number of participants taking examinations for a given screening modality; this number varied depending on differences in compliance with different tests.
Overall rates29,517 (43.1)13,576 (19.8)46.07,306 (10.7)24.82,049 (3.0)6.910,822 (15.8)36.71,062 (1.6)3.6
    Men17,432 (50.9)9,251 (27.0)53.14,056 (11.9)23.31,088 (3.2)6.26,972 (20.4)40.047 (0.1)0.3
    Women12,085 (35.3)4,325 (12.6)35.83,250 (9.5)26.9961 (2.8)8.03,850 (11.3)31.91,015 (3.0)8.4
By screening modality: menf
    PSA3,388 (10.4)2,884 (8.9)85.11,494 (4.6)44.11 (0.0)0.01,491 (4.6)44.06 (0.0)0.2
    DRE4,882 (15.0)3,881 (12.0)79.51,326 (4.1)27.20 (0.0)0.01,259 (3.9)25.81 (0.0)0.0
    CXR6,320 (18.6)3,216 (9.5)50.91,466 (4.3)23.252 (0.2)0.877 (0.2)1.235 (0.1)0.6
    FSG8,186 (26.8)645 (2.1)7.9157 (0.5)1.91,036 (3.4)12.74,821 (15.8)58.95 (0.0)0.1
By screening modality: womenf
    CA-125888 (3.0)567 (1.9)63.9349 (1.2)39.30 (0.0)0.0103 (0.4)11.6125 (0.4)14.1
    TVU2,310 (7.8)745 (2.5)32.31,394 (4.7)60.41 (0.0)0.0677 (2.3)29.3874 (3.0)37.8
    CXR5,531 (16.3)2,907 (8.6)52.61,498 (4.4)27.156 (0.2)1.093 (0.3)1.740 (0.1)0.7
    FSG5,239 (17.2)321 (1.1)6.1151 (0.5)2.9906 (3.0)17.33,072 (10.1)58.67 (0.0)0.1