You have probably read about the controversy around the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations about screening mammography. Yesterday I blogged about at least one of the studies they did not include in their determination for not routinely screening women 40-49 years old. Today, I will review a study from the March issue of American Journal of Roentgenology http://www.ajronline.org/content/198/3/723.abstract which critically evaluates the methods used by the USPSTF.
Drs. Hendrick and Helvie noted that the task force used "old" data, specifically they reviewed only 8 trials and all but one were performed between 1963 and 1982. The USPSTF also used the number of women invited to screen and not actually screened. They site that 25-30% invited are never screened.
These investigators used data on 7.2 million actual screening mammograms performed since 1996 and arrived at different numbers of women needed to be screened (NNS) to save one life. In their data only 746 women needed to be screened (NNS) in the years 40-49 to save one life and not 1904. That is a 39% difference! Reduced numbers were shown for every age group.
Mammograms do save lives! And do so at age 40 years!
Together we can prevent 75,000 breast cancers each year!
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