To calculate the incidence rate, we need to know the number of new cases of breast

cancer that developed during the follow-up period and the total amount of time that
each person was at risk of developing breast cancer.

For the 20 women who were followed up for 1 year and then lost to follow-up, we
don't know if any of them developed breast cancer during the follow-up period.
Therefore, we cannot include them in our incidence rate calculation.

For the 10 women who were followed up for 10 years and never developed breast
cancer, we have a total of 100 person-years of follow-up (10 women × 10 years of
follow-up for each woman). Since none of these women developed breast cancer, there
were 0 new cases of breast cancer in this group.

For the remaining 70 women who were followed up for 5 years, we have a total of 350
person-years of follow-up (70 women × 5 years of follow-up for each woman). If we
assume that none of these women had a history of breast cancer at the start of the
study, then any new cases of breast cancer that occurred during the follow-up
period can be considered incident cases.

If we say that X women developed breast cancer during the 5-year follow-up, then
the incidence rate of breast cancer can be calculated as:

Incidence rate = (Number of new cases of breast cancer ÷ Total person-years of

follow-up) × 1,000

Plugging in the values we have, we get:

X = number of new cases of breast cancer in the 70 women followed up for 5 years
Total person-years of follow-up = 350
Incidence rate = (X ÷ 350) × 1,000

We don't know X, but we can use the information we have been given to come up with
a minimum value for X. Since the incidence rate is 12 per 1,000 person-years, we
know that:

12 = (X ÷ 350) × 1,000
X = 4.2

Therefore, we can say that at least 4.2 women developed breast cancer during the 5-
year follow-up period.

So, the incidence rate of breast cancer in this population is at least:

(4.2 ÷ 350) × 1,000 = 12 per 1,000 person-years.

Note that this is a minimum estimate since we made the assumption that none of the
20 women lost to follow-up developed breast cancer during the 1-year follow-up
period.