THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 16, 1995 TAG: 9508160444
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Women under 50 gain little breast cancer survival benefit from mammography, according to a new analysis of screening trials. Some experts still insist testing of younger women saves lives.
The study, to be published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, concluded that most of the reduction in breast cancer deaths among women who started mammography screening between ages 40 and 49 came as a result of testing done after they were 50.
This finding supports the National Cancer Institute position that breast cancer mammography before age 50 is of reduced value and that it should not be recommended except in individual cases.
The American Cancer Society, however, continues to recommend regular mammographic exams for women beginning at age 40.
In the new study, a team led by Harry J. de Koning of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, used a new computer modeling technique to evaluate five Swedish studies that tested the value of mammographic screening for women in different age groups.
The new analysis found that among women age 50 through 69, mammograms reduced breast cancer mortality by 29.5 percent.
For women who started mammography screening between ages 40 and 49, the study found a reduction in mortality of 3 percent. The study said previous findings of a 10 percent reduction in breast cancer deaths among this age group may have been skewed by the fact that many of the breast cancers were detected in these women only after they turned 50.
KEYWORDS: MAMMOGRAM by CNB