
Screening mammography in women who are in the age group of 40 and 49 detects more cancers than screening patients who are 50 and older, reveals a new study.
Screening mammography in women ages 40-49 detects 19.3% additional cancers at the expense of an overall 1.5% increase in callbacks and 0.1% in increased biopsies.
The study to be presented by Abid Irshad of the Medical University of South Carolina examined the effectiveness of screening mammography between ages 40-49 in comparison to age groups 50-59 and 60-69.
More than 41,000 screening mammography exams were examined for callbacks and recall rate, biopsies performed, cancers detected, and sensitivity and specificity of screening mammography.
Women ages 50-59 had 13,288 mammograms, 1,659 callbacks (12.5% recall rate), 371 biopsies, and 103 cancers detected, while women ages 60-69 had 12,119 mammograms, 1,239 callbacks (10.2% recall rate), 302 biopsies and 89 cancers detected.
Overall, the women ages 50 and over had a total of 31,385 mammograms, 3,504 callbacks (11.2% recall rate), 836 biopsies, and 270 cancers detected.
By adding the women ages 40-49 to the screening population of 50 and over, the overall callback rate increased 1.5%, the biopsy rate increased 0.1% and 19.3% more cancers were detected.
The study results showed that there was a higher number of callbacks among women ages 40-49 compared to women ages 50-59 (17% compared with 12.5%) and to women ages 60-69 (17% compared with 10.2%).
There was also a lower positive biopsy rate among women ages 40-49 compared with women over 50.
The number of cancers detected in women ages 40-49 was not significantly different from women ages 50-59 or 60-69.
Source: Eurekalert
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