According to Recent Article in JAMA. The beneifts of mammogram screening in average risk women with no symptoms are marginal at best.
Imagine we took 4,000 women, 40 years of age, with no symptoms, and separated them into 2 groups. We offer 2,000 of the women a mammogram yearly or every other year for 10 years. The other 2,000 women don’t have a mammogram for 10 years. What would the difference in breast cancer death rates be over the following 10 years between the two groups? The results may surprise you.
In the women who do NOT undergo yearly or every other year mammogram for 10 years (5- 10 mammograms), 7 of the 2,ooo, would die from breast cancer
In the women who DO undergo a mammogram yearly or every other year for 10 years (5-10 mammograms), 6 of the 2,000 women would die from the mammogram.
In other words, the science shows that 1 in 2000 women, aged 40-49, will avoid breast cancer due to the screening mammogram. Stated another way, between 10,000 to 20,000 mammograms (assuming one is done every 1-2 years) need to be conducted to prevent 1 breast cancer death for an average risk women between the age of 40-49.
Likewise, there will be 120-400 false positive screening tests requiring a surgical biospy and 2-10 women will be “overdiagnosed” resulting in unnecessary diagnosis and treatment resulting in surgery, radiation, chemotherapy for breast cancer.
While I am NOT recommending women avoid mammograms, I do recommend women talk to their doctors, their risk factors for breast cancer and what the best course of prevention and screening is best for them. In addition, eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy body weight and exercising routinely are strongly encouraged to help prevent cancer from beginning in the first place.
Remember, a mammogram simply finds a cancer that is already there. It does not prevent cancer itself. In fact, the cumulative radiation doses may increase risk of cancer for a small number of women after 10 to 30 years of mammograms. In addition, low levels of vitamin D are also a risk factor for developing breast cancer. I would recommend you ask your doctor to measure your vitamin D level and strive to reach levels >50 ng/ml.
Sources:
The Benefits and Harms of Mammography Screening, JAMA January 13, 2010. Vol. 303, No. 2
Vitamin D Prescription- The Healing Power of the Sun
