A new study on breast cancer screening has added more fuel to the fiery debate on whether or not regular mammograms reduce deaths from the disease. The 40-year study from the UK found that screenings or improvement in treatment do not account for the decreased rates in mortality from breast cancer.
Published in the June issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, researchers from the University of Oxford analyzed mortality data recorded before and after 1988, when the country s national breast screening program was initiated. Researchers found no evidence of a greater decrease in deaths among women who underwent breast cancer screening, although they could only include breast cancer deaths in the Oxford region where causes of death were documented.
Their findings differ from a 2012 study published in The Lancet that concluded that patients who undergo mammogram screenings have a 20 percent lower risk of breast cancer death compared to those who don t. But the review also notes for every death prevented by breast cancer screenings, three patients will be over-diagnosed and treated for the disease. As ACSH has reported in the past, many studies have shown that despite advisories in the U.S. that women under the age of 50 avoid routine screening mammography unless discussed with a caregiver, many women still opt to get screened. Moreover, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued an advisory in 2009, stating that the evidence for a health benefit for women under 50 undergoing routine mammograms was lacking. In fact, routine mammograms have a greater chance for over-diagnosis and detecting abnormalities in younger women s breasts, requiring numerous follow-up tests and treatments for lesions that were not life-threatening.
The study is not intended to rule out that mammogram screenings may help individual cases, but the results, as they stand, do not show a landslide of improvement in mortality.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross notes, As we ve said in the past, if a woman believes she is at increased risk for breast cancer, or she has been advised by a caregiver that she may be, all bets are certainly off when it comes to having regular, even frequent mammograms. We also must emphasize that the advisories mentioned are solely for routine mammograms in women under age 50. However, this study does add to the evidence that routine mammograms do not improve overall benefits for women at average risk. If breast cancer outcomes are the only criterion, mammograms would be OK as often as requested. But that ignores the unintended consequences wreaked upon the many women who are over-diagnosed and over-treated.