A new report threatens to reignite the debate over when women should get mammograms. In the study Harvard University researchers say mammograms before age 50 could dramatically cut deaths from breast cancer.
Research showed that many women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50 who died had not ever been screened.
The authors suggested that guidelines should be changed to encourage earlier, regular mammograms for all women, said NBC News. But other experts called the study flawed and said it would confuse women more than they already are.
The study was published online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
The National Cancer Institute pointed out that someone getting cancer who hadn’t been previously screened would not necessarily have survived if they'd had a mammogram. A mammogram would not necessarily have caught the tumor in time to save the patient’s life.
According to ABC News, researchers identified women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1990 and 1999 at two Boston hospitals and tracked their cases until 2007.
They found that out of 609 confirmed breast cancer deaths, 395 of these women (71 percent) never had a mammogram prior to diagnosis. Napa Valley Register said that the remaining 29 percent were women who had received mammograms.
Massachusetts General Hospital wrote that 50 percent of these breast cancer deaths occurred in women under the age of 50, a population in which breast tumors typically grow more quickly compared to older women.
“The biological nature of breast cancer in young women is more aggressive, while breast cancer in older women tends to be more indolent. This suggests that less frequent screening in older women, but more frequent screening in younger women, may be more biologically based, practical, and cost effective,” study author Dr. Blake Cady, professor of surgery (emeritus) of Harvard Medical School, said in a press release.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women. ABC News reported that for years, a debate has raged about when women should begin getting mammograms.
In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released a controversial recommendation that women should get mammograms starting at age 50, and that these tests should occur every other year until age 74.
Before this recommendation, doctors had traditionally told patients to get mammograms every one to two years starting at age 40.
Screening women earlier, USPSTF said, doesn’t save enough lives to justify the expense, worry and needless procedures that women go through when they get a false-positive result: a suspicious-looking mammogram that turns out not to be a tumor, wrote NBC News.
However, Napa Valley Register said that the American Cancer Society continues to recommend breast cancer screenings starting at age 40.
Most recommendations say women should talk with their doctors about screening -- when they want to start and how often they would like to have the scans, wrote NBC News.
Sources:
Dills, Isabelle. "Mammograms urged for younger women." Napa Valley Register. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/mammograms-urged-for-younger-women/article_636b3f7e-1d12-11e3-b095-0019bb2963f4.html
Fox, Maggie. "New salvo in mammogram wars says young women should bescreened - NBC News.com." Breaking News & Top Stories - World News, US & Local | NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/new-salvo-mammogram-wars-says-young-women-should-be-screened-8C11098530
"New study supports mammograms before age 50 to reduce breast cancer death." MassGeneral.org. Massachusetts General Hospital, N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.
http://www.massgeneral.org/imaging/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=4361
Nguyen, M.D., Anh. "Mammograms Before 50 Could Save Lives, Researchers Say - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/09/09/mammograms-before-50-could-save-lives-researchers-say
"Study finds mammograms important before age 50 | Summit Health." Summit Health |. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.
http://www.summithealth.org/summit-news/study-finds-mammograms-important-age-50
Reviewed September 19, 2013
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith