Older women see benefits from undergoing annual mammograms
Women 75 years and older should still continue to undergo annual screening mammograms, according to a new study to be presented at RSNA 2018 in Chicago.
“Ongoing debate exists regarding the age to cease screening mammography,” author Stamatia V. Destounis, MD, a radiologist at Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, New York, said in a news release from RSNA. “Our findings provide important data demonstrating that there is value in screening women over 75 because there is a considerable incidence of breast cancer.”
Destounis and colleagues explored data from more than 763,000 screening mammography exams from their facility from a 10-year period. Overall, 10 percent of those patients were 75 years old or older. Those patients had a cancer rate of 8.4 detections per 1,000 exams.
“For the relatively small percentage of our screening population that was comprised of women 75 and older, the patients diagnosed in this population made up 16 percent of all patients diagnosed with screening-detected cancers,” Destounis said in the same release.
Ninety-eight percent of the cancers were treated surgically, Destounis added, and she advises women over the age of 75 still in good health to continue annual screenings.
“The benefits of screening yearly after age 75 continue to outweigh any minimal risk of additional diagnostic testing,” she said.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.