Sixteen of the 86 eligible articles mentioned > 1 of the debated issues, but argued neither for nor against the quality of the study. Thirty-seven articles of various authors, including 15 articles (co-)authored by five radiological reviewers1 [21–29] (Kopans, Feig, Logan, Sickles, Tabar) one advisor (Moskowitz), and the responsible physicist [30] (Yaffe) published on “severe flaws” of the study. Thirty-three articles, of which 27 were (co-)authored by the two principal investigators, Miller or Baines, defended the study (Fig. 2). Two of the radiological reviewers resigned during the study.
Fig. 2 This chart shows the number of publications which criticized or defended the CNBSS. With very few exceptions, only the main investigators defended the trial. Numerous authors criticized it. Seven of these authors were involved with review or quality assurance of the CNBSS. These authors are mentioned explicitly. Some published several articles concerning the CNBSS. Further publications mentioned some of the issues, but did not comment them. The list of references can be reviewed in the electronic supplementary material (ESM)