We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress
Sign In
Advertise with Us
GLOBETECH PUBLISHING LLC

Download Mobile App




Little Benefit in Mammography for Older Women with Comorbidities

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 18 Sep 2019
Print article
A new study suggests that women 75 and older who suffer from chronic diseases are unlikely to benefit from mammograms.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF; USA) and Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC; Washington DC, USA) conducted a study to evaluate the benefit of screening mammography in older women. The researchers examined 10-year cumulative incidence of breast cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and death from breast cancer and other causes in 222,088 women with at least one mammogram taken between the ages of 66 and 94. In all, 7,583 women were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and 1,742 with DCIS.

Over the 10 years, 471 women died from breast cancer and 42,229 died from other causes, a nearly 90-fold difference. Other findings were that women 75-84 years of age were 123 times more likely to die of causes other than breast cancer; estimates were even higher among women age 85 and older. The risk of dying from breast cancer stayed steady as the risk of dying from non-breast cancer causes increased; conversely, the risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer decreased slightly after age 75, regardless of women's overall health status. The study was published on September 6, 2019, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

“Cumulative incidence of other cause death was many times higher than breast cancer incidence and death, depending on comorbidity and age. Hence, older women with increased comorbidity may experience diminished benefit from continued screening,” said senior author Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, of GUMC. “Our findings shed light on what age may be the best stopping point for mammography. If you have chronic illnesses after age 75, our findings do not support continuing mammograms.”

The debate over the need for screening mammography in middle aged women has raged since 2009, when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF, Rockville, MD, USA) recommended that routine mammography for women aged 40-49 should not be performed, as cancer risk is low, while the risk of false–positive results and over-diagnosis and overtreatment is high. In fact, the issue of over-diagnosis is a growing problem in all Western countries, where national screening programs are prevalent.

Related Links:
University of California, San Francisco
Georgetown University Medical Center

Gold Member
Solid State Kv/Dose Multi-Sensor
AGMS-DM+
Dose Area Product Meter
VacuDAP
New
PACS Workstation
CHILI Web Viewer
Digital Radiography Acquisition Software
VXvue with PureImpact

Print article

Channels

Radiography

view channel
:	Image: The AI model could be a valuable adjunct to human radiologists in breast cancer diagnoses and risk prediction (Photo courtesy of 123RF)

AI Model Predicts 5-Year Breast Cancer Risk from Mammograms

Approximately 13% of U.S. women, or one in every eight, are predicted to develop invasive breast cancer over their lifetime, with 1 in 39 women (3%) succumbing to the illness, according to the American... Read more

Nuclear Medicine

view channel
Image: The AI system uses scintigraphy imaging for early diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis (Photo courtesy of 123RF)

AI System Automatically and Reliably Detects Cardiac Amyloidosis Using Scintigraphy Imaging

Cardiac amyloidosis, a condition characterized by the buildup of abnormal protein deposits (amyloids) in the heart muscle, severely affects heart function and can lead to heart failure or death without... Read more

Imaging IT

view channel
Image: The new Medical Imaging Suite makes healthcare imaging data more accessible, interoperable and useful (Photo courtesy of Google Cloud)

New Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite Makes Imaging Healthcare Data More Accessible

Medical imaging is a critical tool used to diagnose patients, and there are billions of medical images scanned globally each year. Imaging data accounts for about 90% of all healthcare data1 and, until... Read more

Industry News

view channel
Image: Samsung Medison CEO Mr. Yongkwan Kim and Bracco Imaging CEO Dr. Fulvio Renoldi Bracco endorsed a MoU agreement (Photo courtesy of Bracco Group)

Samsung and Bracco Enter Into New Diagnostic Ultrasound Technology Agreement

Samsung Medison (Seoul, South Korea) and Bracco Imaging (Milan, Italy) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement to pioneer a new area for diagnostic ultrasound devices and contrast agents.... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2024 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.