Screening mammography for women ages 40-49 detects 19% more cancers than starting at age 50

Screening mammography in women ages 40 to 49 detects 19.3 percent more cancers than screening patients ages 50 and older, according to a study to be presented at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) 2018 Annual Meeting April 22-27 in Washington, D.C.

The study will be presented by Abid Irshad, MBBS, of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, according to an ARRS press release. The authors compared screening mammography in the age group of 40-49 to older age groups (50-59 and 60-69).

Irshad et al. examined more than 8,000 mammograms for women ages 40-49, more than 13,000 mammograms for women ages 50-59 and more than 12,000 mammograms for women ages 60-69. Combining the 50-59 and 60-69 age groups, more than 31,000 women had mammograms, with a recall rate of more than 11 percent, more than 800 biopsies and more than 250 cancers detected. By adding the women ages 40-49, 19.3 percent more cancers were detected, the callback rate increased just 1.5 percent and the biopsy rate increased just 0.1 percent.

More information will be made available when the full study is presented at the ARRS 2018 Annual Meeting.