women who had mammograms in the follicular phase. For luteal mammograms, the unadjusted odds ratio for false-negatives versus true-negatives was 2.16 and the adjusted odds ratio was 1.47, both statistically significant. In contrast, women who had never used hormones appeared to have a decreased chance of having a false-negative mammogram in the luteal phase, but this decrease was not statistically significant.

"Mammography is known to be less accurate in younger than older women," says Baines, who notes that currently many women in their 40s receive mammography without an accompanying clinical breast examination. "Without that exam, their false-negative mammograms will not be recognized and the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer will be delayed."

"If some breast cancers are not detected by mammography, obviously the overall benefit of screening programs is likely to be reduced," explains Baines. "Our study shows there is an opportunity to improve the accuracy of mammograms by choosing to have mammograms during the first half of the menstrual cycle."

Investigators Baines and Dr. Marjan Vidmar received support from the National Cancer Institute of Canada while working on the study with Professors Gail McKeown-Eyssen and Robert Tibshirani, all of the department of public health sciences.

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Contact: Christina Marshall
christina.marshall@utoronto.ca
416-978-5949
University of Toronto
14-Aug-1997


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