The largest study on mammograms found little evidence supporting the use of mammograms for early-detection screenings.
The study had two groups of women; the mammogram-tested group and the mammograms-abstaining group. Over the course of 25 years, the study found the mortality rate -- among the 90,000 Canadian women studied -- was the same. Meaning, the argument that mammograms work for early cancer detection isn't more helpful than the women performing self breast exams.
It might be possible that mammography screening would work if you don't have any awareness of the disease," said Dr. Kalager, an epidemiologist and screening researcher.
Although mammograms did have a little reduction on the overall mortality rate from breast cancer, it did increase over-diagnosing, which had lead to unnecessary biopsies and inaccurate positives, said Dr. Peter Juni of the Swiss Medical Board.
The decision to have a mammogram should not be a slam dunk," said Dr. Russell P. Harris, a screening expert and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study.
The study said the experts had predicted that over time the continued use of mammograms would prove their usefulness. But unlike the experts' predictions, the study found mammograms caused patients to be over-diagnosed with treatments --chemotherapy, radiation and surgeryfor cancers that may not have killed them. Cancer has shown to grow slowly or not at all. Some cancer will shrink or vanish on its own and some cancers do not need treatment. But it is impossible for doctors to know which cancers will be dangerous therefore they treat them all.
I was very surprised," Dr. Kalager said. With the wide support for mammography screenings, she assumed that the evidence for them would have been stronger.
In the study's editorial, Dr. Kalager compared mammography to prostate screening. She said that both screenings are over-diagnosing their patients with only a small reduction in breast or prostate deaths.
In 2014, 36 million mammograms were given annually at an average cost of $100. 3 out of 4 women over the age of 40 have said that they had a mammogram within the last year.
The results from the study will not have an instant impact on the current mammography guidelines.
The study was completed prior to popular preventative drugs were being used.
For more information on breast cancer and prevention please visit [Fucoidan Force's website.](http://www.fucoidanforce.com/articles/mammograms-effective/)
