Women age 75 years and older should continue to get screening mammograms because of the comparatively high incidence of breast cancer found in this age group, according to a study led by Stamatia Destounis, MD, of Elizabeth Wende Breast Care, LLC, in New York. This research will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
For the study, researchers analyzed data from 763,256 screening mammography exams, and 10 percent of women included in the study were 75 years of age or older. Overall, screening-detected cancer was diagnosed in 3,944 patients. A total of 616 patients age 75 and older had malignancies for a cancer rate of 8.4 detections per 1,000 exams among this age group.
Guidelines on what age to stop breast cancer screening have been a source of confusion in recent years. In 2009, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released controversial guidelines stating there was not enough evidence to assess benefits and harms of screening mammography in women age 75 and older. However, other professional groups advise that women may continue to undergo mammography screening as long as they are in good health.
“For the relatively small percentage of our screening population that was comprised of women 75 and older, the patients diagnosed in this population made up 16 percent of all patients diagnosed with screening-detected cancers,” Destounis says.
Researchers also found that 82% of the malignancies diagnosed were invasive cancers, of which 63% were grade 2 or 3, which grow and spread more quickly. Moreover, 98% of the cancers found were able to be treated surgically.
Mammography plays a critical role in the early detection of breast cancer, because it can show changes in the breast up to two years before a woman or her physician can feel them, and early detection leads to better treatment options and improved survival. Destounis advises women over 75 who are in relatively good health to continue routine screenings. “The benefits of screening yearly after age 75 continue to outweigh any minimal risk of additional diagnostic testing,” she says.
This “study” is produced by people with big vested interests in mammography such as radiologists.
Unbiased scientific data has long shown that there is marginal, if any, reliable evidence that mammography, both conventional and digital (3D), reduces mortality from breast cancer in a significant way in any age bracket but a lot of solid evidence shows the procedure does provide more serious harm than serious benefit (read the books: ‘Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy’ by Peter Gotzsche and ‘The Mammogram Myth’ by Rolf Hefti).
IF…….. women (and men) at large were to examine the mammogram data above and beyond the information of the mammogram business cartel (eg American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, Komen), they’d also find that it is almost exclusively the big profiteers of the test, ie. the “experts,” (eg radiologists, oncologists, medical trade associations, breast cancer “charities” etc) who promote the mass use of the test and that most pro-mammogram “research” is conducted by people with massive vested interests tied to the mammogram industry.
Most women are fooled by the misleading medical mantra that early detection by mammography saves lives simply because the public has been fed (“educated” or rather brainwashed) with a very one-sided biased pro-mammogram set of information circulated by the big business of mainstream medicine and their allied corrupt pawns in the governments. The above mentioned two independent investigative works show that early detection does not mean that there is less breast cancer mortality.