New study supports move toward fewer mamograms

from the Los Angeles Times

If you're still upset about last fall's recommendation by the u.S. Preventative Services Task Force that women begin getting mammograms to screen for breast cancer at age 50 instead of 40 — and to get them every other year instead of annually — a new study from Denmark may put you at ease.

Mammographic screening was introduced in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in 1991, and it began in Funen County (home of Hans Christian Andersen) in 1993.

Between 1997 and 2006, deaths due to breast cancer fell 5 percent per year among women age 35-54 in those areas. For women age 55-74 — who would benefit most from screening — the mortality rate dropped by 1 percent per year, and for older women there was little change.

Looks like a success for breast cancer screening right? Not so fast, the researchers said.

They also checked the corresponding mortality rates for the 80 percent of Danish women who didn't participate in screening programs. In those areas, breast cancer deaths in the same decade declined 6 percent per year for women age 35-54 and by 2 percent per year for women age 55-74. Again, there was little year-to- year change among older women.

Those findings led the researchers to conclude that improved treatments and changes in risk factors, not the mammograms, were responsible for the reduction in breast cancer mortality.