More false-positive results for elderly when mammogram is performed yearly
Compared with annual breast cancer screenings, mammograms every 2 years were just as beneficial for older women, a recent study shows. The screening interval also led to significantly fewer false-positive results, according to researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCFS).
Lead author Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, a UCSF assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics said, “Screening every other year, as opposed to every year, does not increase the probability of late-stage breast cancer in older women.”
For the study, researchers used data collected from 1999 to 2006 on over 140,000 women between the ages of 66 and 89 (2993 women with breast cancer and 137,949 without breast cancer). The data were acquired from 5 Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium mammography registries in California, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Vermont, and Washington.
Study results, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, showed rates of late-stage breast cancer were no different for women screened annually and women screened biennially.
However, differences arose when researchers compared false-positive results between the 2 groups. Of the women between the ages of 66 and 74 who were screened every year, 48% had false-positive results, while only 29% of women in the same age range who were screened every 2 years had false-positive results.
“Women aged 66 to 74 years who choose to undergo screening mammography should be screened every 2 years,” said senior author Karla Kerlikowske, MD, a UCSF professor of medicine and a physician at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco VA Medical Center. “They get no added benefit from annual screening, and face almost twice the false positives and biopsy recommendations, which may cause anxiety and inconvenience.”
Braithwaite noted that the study “fills an important information gap, since accountable care organizations do not address screening intervals or screening cessation in women of advanced age or with a significant burden of illness.”
Source: UCSF.