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Mammogram screening unwise for healthy young women

The American Cancer Society ..this study strongly supports their recommendation that screening mammography should begin at age 40 and not earlier.

Mammograms in your 30s: – Paging Dr. Gupta – CNN.com Blogs ‘A needle in a haystack’ By Sabriya Rice CNN Medical Producer May 3, 201 0An estimated 29 percent of U.S. women in their 30s undergo mammograms each year, but false-positives and callbacks for additional screenings are frequent, and few breast cancers are detected in women of this age group, a new study finds.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, looked at 117,738 women younger than age 40 with no family history of breast cancer. Women between ages 35 and 39 underwent the highest number of mammograms, yet for every 10,000 women screened in this age group, 1,266 would be called back for additional tests and imaging and 16 cancers would be found. That number more than doubles to 43 cancers detected per 10,000 women ages 45-49, and continues to increase with age……

The American Cancer Society ..this study strongly supports their recommendation that screening mammography should begin at age 40 and not earlier. “We have been concerned that some have been encouraging that screening begin at younger and younger ages, when the science does not support it as beneficial,” Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the ACS wrote in a statement. He also notes “it is important to remember that this is a study of women who have no symptoms, and are not at high risk of breast cancer.”

Mammograms in your 30s: ‘A needle in a haystack’ – Paging Dr. Gupta – CNN.com Blogs

May 4, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health | antinuclear, radiation, radioactive