Cornell Researchers See Significant Mammography Benefit for women Over 40

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical Center have joined the debate over the value of mammography, claiming their reanalysis of data shows a significant benefit for women over age 40.

Danish researchers recently raised question as to the benefits of mammography performed on women younger than 40, and an independent US medical panel, Physician Data Query (PDQ), also voiced doubt about the benefit of routine mammography after reviewing the report from the Danish research team.

But Cornell researchers report finding flaws in the Danish researchers' method of analysis, especially in their analysis of a 1988 Swedish study that the Danish investigators claimed was the strongest of the 7 studies they reported on.

Breast cancer death rates were about the same in screened and unscreened women in the first 6 years of the Swedish study, but after 6 years the screened women were significantly less likely to die of breast cancer, the Cornell group reported in The Lancet.

Women ages 45 to 54 who received mammograms were 30 percent less likely to die during the 8th to 11th year of follow-up and the risk was reduced by 55 percent in women ages 55 and older, according to the report.

The Danish team, according to the Cornell report, did not account for death rate reductions with mammography that were apparent over the long term, not just in the first few years of screening.

"We found reliable evidence of fatality reduction, apparently substantial in magnitude," the researchers concluded.

And despite the current controversy over the benefits of mammography in younger women, the National Cancer Institute is continuing to recommend that women get yearly mammograms beginning at age 40.

Other Sources:The Lancet, AP