Mammogram May Be More Effective
A new study by Swedish researchers indicates that women who get a mammogram every two years may reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by more than 60 percent. The benefits may be even more significant for women who receive annual mammograms.
In a study presented at the recent American Cancer Society (ACS) Science Writers Seminar in Dana Point, California, Robert Smith, Ph.D., of the ACS reported on the study, which will be published in the May 1st issue of the journal Cancer. Smith serves as the society's director of cancer screening.
The study followed 6,807 Swedish women aged 20 through 69 who were diagnosed with breast cancer over a 29-year period; 1,863 eventually died from the disease. The researchers compared mortality rates in three time periods: 1968 - 1977 (before mammograms were widely introduced); 1978 - 1987 (when mammograms were offered to half of the women in a large study); and 1998 - 1996 (when mammograms were available every two years to all women over 40).
During the most recent period, women were mailed an invitation every two years to have a free mammogram. For those who took part in the program, their breast cancer mortality rate decreased by 63 percent compared to women in the earliest period when mammograms were not regularly available.
Smith noted that previous studies have touted a 30 percent mortality risk reduction, which makes the current findings all the more impressive. He said the earlier studies did not filter out women who declined the mammograms, or women whose cancer was detected before they were offered screening.
A reduction in breast cancer mortality would be especially important for minority populations, where a disproportionate number of women die from the disease.
For example, as noted in a recent article in the American Journal of Public Health, total breast cancer mortality rates are finally decreasing for Caucasian women in the United States, but not for African-American women.
From 1993 to 1996, young African-American breast cancer patients (under age 35) had a two-fold higher mortality rate than Caucasian women of the same age, wrote Dr. Peter Layde and Anne Marbella from the Medical College of Wisconsin. For breast cancer patients between ages 40 and 50, African-American women had 1.5 times the mortality rate; for those 55 years and older, African-American women had similar or slightly higher rates than those for Caucasian women.
The researchers came to an even more disturbing finding for older women. Prior to 1992, African-American women age 70 and older actually had lower breast cancer mortality rates than white women. "But from 1993 to 1996, their rates became equivalent to and, at times, slightly higher than rates for older white women," they wrote.
"Trends in risk factors, early detection, and treatment do not provide an obvious explanation for the substantial increase in breast cancer mortality for African-American women age 70 years and older," they commented.
"Further research is needed to understand more fully the breast cancer mortality rate differences among the races and to determine whether changes in public health policy or clinical practice can decrease the racial disparity."
SOURCES:
Cancer, May 1, 2001; 91:9
43rd Science Writers Seminar, American Cancer Society, Dana Point, California, April 2001
The American Cancer Society (http://www2.cancer.org)
American Journal of Public Health, January 2001; 91:118-121
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