Fewer Mammograms, More Cancer Later

May 15, 2007 — -- The information about breast cancer keeps on coming.

We have witnessed a number of new research reports over the past six months that would have anyone interested in the subject of breast cancer reeling from the various -- and at times conflicting -- messages contained in these reports.

Now, we have another article published in the current issue of Cancer that shows that mammography rates have fallen precipitously from 2000 to 2005.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might be asking, "What's new about that?" After all, we have been discussing the various reports about the decreasing incidence of breast cancer and the decrease in screening mammography for some time.

In fact, this new study adds further strong confirming evidence that we are facing significant challenges when it comes to the early diagnosis of breast cancer.

This new report, which is authored by investigators from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that mammography screening rates dropped nearly 4 percent from 2000 to 2005.

Of particular note was the drop in mammography screening in women between the ages of 50-64, who are generally the highest utilizers of mammography screening. In this group, the decline was 6.8 percent over the five-year time frame.

As I mentioned, we have been hearing a lot of information about breast cancer incidence and mammography rates over the past six months. In fact, there have been concerns about these issues for some time.

This September, in our annual report to the nation, my colleagues (and other collaborators) reported a 4.8 percent decline per year in the incidence of breast cancer from 2000 to 2003.

Then, in December 2006, researchers made a presentation at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio that a detailed analysis of a national cancer database called SEER showed there was a declining incidence of breast cancer over roughly the same time period.