Mammograms, along with regular breast self-exam, are one of the best ways to diagnose breast cancer early, when it's most treatable. Still, debate about the value of mammograms and when to start doing them continues. The findings of this research add VERY important information to the discussion.
This very large study looked at the health records of more than 1 million women in Sweden. More than 23,000 of the women were diagnosed with breast cancer. The researchers found that women who had been getting regular mammograms were more likely to have breast cancers that were smaller and hadn't spread to the lymph nodes when disease was diagnosed. Depending on the age of the women, advanced breast cancers were reduced from 17% to 37% in women who had regular mammograms.
If you're older than 40, skipping regular mammograms is NOT an option. As this research shows, mammograms can truly make a difference in your health and your life. To learn more visit the breastcancer.org Screening and Testing section.
This article was made possible by an educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Mammography screening has significantly reduced the number of breast cancers cases involving large tumors or disease that has spread to the lymph nodes, according to a Swedish study.
Dr. Robert A. Smith of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta and his associates examined data from 20 to 40 years of observation for 1.1 million Swedish women. Over this period there were 23,092 breast cancer cases.
For women between 40 and 49 years of age, mammography screening was associated with significant reductions in the rate of node-positive cancers, tumors larger than 2 cm, and cancers of stage II or higher, the investigators report in the medical journal Cancer.
Significant reductions in all of these three parameters were also seen among women in the 50-to-69 year-old group.
The combined results for all ages (40 to 69 years) showed that mammograms were associated with a 17 percent to 37 percent reduction in advanced tumors.
"Reductions in tumors larger than 2 cm or with (positive) lymph nodes can be used as an early indicator of the effectiveness of screening," Smith and his colleagues conclude.
SOURCE: Cancer, June 1, 2007.
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