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Fewer women getting mammograms
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More from HealthFewer American women are getting screened for breast cancer a trend that could lead to deadlier cases of the disease, government scientists report.
In 2000, 70 percent of U.S. women older than 40 reported having received a mammogram in the past two years, as is recommended by federal guidelines. But by 2005, just 66 percent said they had, according to a study in a recent issue of the journal Cancer.
"The drop is real. It is small, but it's a change in direction, and that's cause for concern," said Nancy Breen, an economist at the National Cancer Institute. "Mammography is the best way we have for detecting breast cancer early."
Paradoxically, the drop was steepest among the very women who were once most likely to get routine mammograms: those who are white, educated and covered by health insurance.
The reasons for that are unclear, Breen said. But a recent study suggested that a 9 percent decline in breast cancer cases from 2001 to 2004 may stem from women's rejection of hormone-replacement therapy.
That drop nearly 40 percent fewer women were using HRT by the end of 2002, after a study found it raised the risk of breast cancer and heart disease could mean that fewer women's cancers are being caught when they're still treatable.
"One of the questions we have is whether women or physicians may be feeling that because women are not using hormone-replacement therapy, they may be at less risk of breast cancer and therefore less in need of mammography," Breen said. "That's kind of a high-risk strategy."
But Dr. Arnold Baskies of the American Cancer Society's eastern division said the drop in use of HRT wasn't the whole story.
"Women still want mammograms, but it's harder to get them," Baskies said. "We have fewer radiologists willing to do the tests" because of low reimbursement and fears of lawsuits.
Posted by hustin1 on May 21, 2007 at 3:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This really concerns me - if it wasn't for a mammogram (and someone who made me get one), I would have died. Enough said.
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