November 11, 2016 – Routine Mammography

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Anchor lead:  Controversy swirls around mammography risks and benefits, Elizabeth Tracey reports

More small breast tumors are being diagnosed now but not a proportional reduction in the number of large ones, a recent study found, pointing to the potential for what’s known as overdiagnosis, or finding tumors that would never have caused a problem in her lifetime.  What does this mean about when women should have mammography? Antonio Wolff, a breast cancer expert at Johns Hopkins, offers his opinion.

Wolff: It’s a complicated question for which we don’t have the right answer.  I think it is important that each woman discuss this with her gynecologist, her personal features: family history, prior breast problems, to help them make a decision about when they should consider starting mammography, somewhere between the ages of forty and fifty. Clearly there is not a recipe for one size fits all.   :30

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.