Mammograms have been the focus of controversy since 2009, when the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended that this routine screening not begin until age 50. A new report looking back over 50 years of data on mammograms and breast cancer outcomes has added to the debate.
It suggests that the benefits have been overemphasized and the downside, particularly the risk of overdiagnosis, has been largely ignored. Perhaps as many as 19 percent of breast cancers diagnosed through 10 years of screening would not have caused the women harboring them any harm.
When do women get diminishing returns from mammograms? The review indicates that for women over 75, mammograms should be offered if the woman’s life expectancy is at least ten years. If other health conditions have shortened that life expectancy, it makes little sense to detect a breast cancer small enough that it could not be felt in a breast exam.
