Mammography, in short, was not going to be the unequivocal “savior” of all women with breast cancer. Its effects, as the statistician Donald Berry describes it, “are indisputable for a certain segment of women—but also indisputably modest in that segment.” Berry wrote, “Screening is a lottery. Any winnings are shared by the minority of women.… The overwhelming proportion of women experience no benefit and they pay with the time involved and the risks associated with screening.… The risk of not having a mammogram until after age 50 is about the same as riding a bicycle for 15 hours without a
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