A new study suggests that women should be getting mammograms even before they turn 50 as most breast cancer-related deaths occur even before that age.
Dr. Blake Cady, lead author of the study from Massachusetts General Hospital, and his colleagues analyzed medical records of breast cancer patients diagnosed between 1999 and 1999 from two Boston hospitals.
After the follow-up period of 2009, 609 people died wherein 71 percent was women who never had mammogram before diagnosis. Moreover, these women were below 50 years old. Only 13 percent of those over 70 died.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released a recommendation in 2009 suggesting women to start getting regular mammograms beginning 50 through 74 every other year. This was against doctors' recommendation that it should start at 40.
The USPSTF issued the recommendation to prevent women from submitting themselves in unnecessary screenings and financial loss as more often than not, they would only get false-positives.
"I have watched the mortality rate from breast cancer fall from 50 percent in the 1960s to 9.2 percent today with the advent of early detection with mammography," said Cady to ABC News. He also supports the recommendation that screening should begin at age 40.
He added, "Without screening, they're just like the women in the 1960s who died without ever knowing they had breast cancer." The average age of women who died was 49.
Back in 1969, 50 percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer died after 12.5 years in average.
"This is a remarkable achievement, and the fact that 71 percent of the women who died were women who were not participating in screening clearly supports the importance of early detection," said co-author Daniel Kopans, MD, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in an interview with Science Codex.
The study was published in the online journal Cancer.
