United States: A new study proves that it is better for women who are 40 years old and over to get a mammogram annually instead of every two years so that breast cancers can be detected early.
A team at the University of Pittsburgh discovered that identifying a tumor meant that its growth was much slower between two mammograms among the women who got the mammogram every year compared to those who had the scans over two years or more, as reported by HealthDay.
Improved Survival Rates and Less Aggressive Treatment
“Annual mammogram screenings help to raise the chances of breast cancer survival since the disease can be detected early, which reduces potential patient harm because therapy may not be as aggressive, eases recovery, and can even be less expensive,” Dr.Zuley from Pitt radiology said.
The new findings emerge as different guidelines regarding how often women should get mammograms are unclear for many women in their 40s.
Recommendations from the American College of Radiology state that women over forty should have a mammogram every year, while the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force, a leading organization, recommends mammograms every two years starting at age forty.
Higher Risk of Late-Stage Cancer
In the new study, Zuley and her group identified 8,100 or more female patients who had at least one mammogram ever before receiving a breast cancer diagnosis from an institution.
In a more recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, authors Zuley and colleagues identified that the percentage of women diagnosed with breast cancer at a late stage, specifically stage IIB or worse, increased proportionately to the period between two mammograms.
This means first-year screening showed that 9 percent of women who got annual screens had late-stage cancer compared to 14 percent of women who got screened once every two years and 19 percent of women screened intermittently ( more than 27 months between scans).
Well, yes, the risk with the higher frequency of getting a mammogram is indeed that a woman might be given a false-positive result that would lead to anxiety and other procedures that might be unnecessary.
False Positives vs. Missed Diagnoses
“We recognize that there are potential harms associated with calling women back for additional screening, but I don’t think that these harms outweigh the risk of missing cancers and women dying as a result,” Zuley said in a university news release. She’s also chief of the Division of Breast Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, as reported by HealthDay.
“We’re also working on testing screening tools that have lower false positives than mammography and pushing on every front to identify the most cost-effective and accurate way of taking care of our patients,” she added.