The more often a woman is screened, the more likely breast cancer will be caught early and treated more effectively. "The real risk is not in getting mammography," says Dr. Feig, "but in not getting mammography. The risk is conjecture; the benefit is real."

Dr. Feig reiterated this point in an editorial he wrote in the December issue of the journal Cancer , in which Swedish scientists reported the results of a study performed in Gothenburg, Sweden. The study showed that performing mammography screening in women between ages 39 to 49 every year and a half would result in a 45 percent reduction in cancer deaths. Dr. Feig calculated that if all women in the trial actually had been screened annually instead, there might have been as much as a 75 percent reduction in breast cancer deaths.

"Considering the reasonable cost and the fact that the benefits outweigh the risks, there is no reason I can think of as to why women shouldn’t get this lifesaving screening," Dr. Feig concludes.

Earlier this year, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute both recommended that women 40 and older have regular mammograms.

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Contact: Steve Benowitz
steven.benowitz@mail.tju.edu
215-955-6300
Thomas Jefferson University
3-Dec-1997