For Release: May 5, 1997
Contact: Michael J. Bernstein (703) 648-8910
Carolyn J. Loss; (703) 648-8928; [email protected]
Yearly Mammograms in 40s More Effective
Than Less Frequent Screening, New Study Finds
Mammography screening every year finds more treatable breast cancers in women 40-49 than does screening every two years, according to a new study.
Until this spring most national medical organizations recommended such screening every 1-2 years, but in March the American Cancer Society and the American College of Radiology changed their guidelines to every year. The groups cited major clinical studies in Sweden which showed better prognoses for women 40-49 screened annually.
This latest study, presented May 5 at the American Roentgen Ray Society 's 97th Annual Meeting in Boston, MA, was developed at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Dr. Marilyn Roubidoux, assistant professor of radiology, who presented the study, said that of women who developed breast cancer and had screening mammograms yearly, 74 percent were diagnosed with early stage breast cancers. Of those screened at intervals of two years 65 percent had breast cancers in the same early stages and of those screened less frequently than every two years only 54 percent had these early stage cancers.
"Clearly, those patients in their 40s who had had the shortest screening intervals had the breast cancers most favorable for treatment," Dr. Roubidoux said.
In the study, a search of the tumor registry and breast imaging records produced a group of 184 women with breast cancer in whom tumor stages and history regarding prior mammography were available. The patients were then divided into three groups: those whose cancers were detected within a year of a screening mammogram, those within two years and those beyond two years.
A prior screening mammogram was defined as a normal mammogram in a patient without a breast lump.
The American Roentgen Ray Society, with some 12,000 members, is the first and oldest radiological society in the United States. The society is dedicated to the advancement of medicine through the science of radiology.
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