Jan 16, 2014 – Mammography Benefit

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ANCHOR LEAD: WHAT ARE THE UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES OF MAMMOGRAPHY? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

Mammography prevents death from breast cancer in only a few women screened, yet causes many more to undergo treatment that isn’t needed, and identifies hundreds who then must undergo additional assessment, an analysis published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine concludes. Does this mean most women should give mammography a miss? Ben Park, a breast cancer expert at Johns Hopkins, weighs in on mammography in a fifty year old woman of average risk.

PARK: I would tell that woman that one, she should still have a baseline screening mammogram no matter what, and that yearly mammograms I would still be recommending that based upon guidelines that we’re trying to follow right now, guidelines are all over the place depending on which societies, but most guidelines would still recommend for a woman of that age, average risk, to still have at least in this country a screening mammogram yearly. :22

Park says that better techniques for screening are under development, but for now he opts for following guidelines. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.