Study Questions Value of Routine Mammograms

A recent news brief service recently sent out highlights about a new study published in NEJM that questions the value of mammography for breast cancer screening while critics cited in the news brief call the study “deeply flawed” and suggest keeping with the recommendations. The study was conducted by researchers at Dartmouth and NCI and is available here (subscription required). So the debate continues – to screen or not screen, when and how to screen and when to get subsequently screened.  And during National Breast Cancer Awareness month and National Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day of all things when Pinktober is intended to raise awareness, prevention, screening and call to our healthcare policy makers the need for additional resources for metastatic patients…

The AP (10/12, Marchione) reports that research published in the New England Journal of Medicine “questions the value of mammograms for breast cancer screening.”

Reuters (10/12, Emery) reports that investigators “found that mammography resulted in the discovery of 162 more cases of breast cancer for every 100,000 women, but only 30 of those small tumors were expected to grow and become a danger,” which “suggests more than four times as many cases – 132 in all – were what is known as overdiagnosed.”

MedPage Today (10/12, Walker) reports that the study “also found that while the breast cancer mortality rate improved during the study period, screening did not appear to be the predominant reason.”

NBC News (10/12, Douglas, Dunn, Fox) reports on its website, however, that some “experts…called the report deeply flawed and urged women to get mammograms as recommended.”