Breast cancer survival rates might be feeling the effects of fewer performed mammograms, new studies show.
According to researchers at the University of Colorado, the number of mammograms performed annually on women between the ages of 40 and 49 has considerably declined. In 2009, the USPSTF (US Preventative Services Task Force) recommended to not routinely screen women in this age group with mammograms, which could lessen the likelihood of detecting the disease early on.
In a different study, a team from the University Hospitals at Case Medical Center researched what the possible impact of skipping mammogram screenings might have. They discovered that 108 cases of cancer were diagnosed out of 524 biopsies. Cancer diagnoses among women who had mammograms (between the ages of 40 and 49) happened at a much earlier stage in comparison to women of the same age who didn’t undergo screening.
Dr. Donna Plecha, the leader of this study, believes that breast cancer survival rates will drop among these women if doctors continue to floor USPSTF’s guidelines.
“70 percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer don't have a family history of breast cancer,” Dr. Plecha said “It's very important that we continue to do all that we can to catch breast cancer in the earliest stages so that we can continue to save lives.”
