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Report advises more frequent mammograms for younger
women
Posted
8-23-99 Falun, Sweden. Two years may be too long for women under 50 to wait between mammograms, according to a team of international researchers. Because tumors grow more swiftly in younger women, researchers are advising that women as young as age 40 be screened for breast cancer every 12 to 18 months. The report, which was conducted at Central Hospital in Falun, Sweden, appeared in the Aug. 1 issue of Cancer. It examined data on 77,080 randomly selected women. The research team determined that if women ages 40 to 54 had mammograms once a year, it would reduce mortality by 32 percent, said Laszlo Tabar, MD, director of the study. "The take-home message here is that if there is a fundamental difference in the tumor growth rate, the best policy is to screen once a year," said Robert Smith, MD, director of cancer screening for the American Cancer Society. Early screening reduces mortality by detecting tumors at a smaller size, decreasing the probability of lymph node metastases, and reducing the opportunity for worsening of the grade of malignancy of the tumor. "Detection of small (less than 15 mm) and lymph-node-negative invasive tumors will save lives and confer an opportunity for less radical treatment," researchers wrote. Each year, breast cancer claims the lives of more than 10,000 women who develop the disease before age 50. The American Cancer Society recommends annual screenings for all women beginning at age 40. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recommends women begin screenings at 40 and repeat them every one to two years, and that those in this age group with a family history of the disease consult a physician about more frequent screenings, said Barry Kramer, MD, deputy director of cancer prevention at the NCI. There is no consensus on recommendations for women under 40. Smith believes only one factor should determine how long a woman waits between screenings: whether she's reached her 40th birthday. "If you're going to seek the protection a screening can provide, you should do it once a year," he said.
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