Do Regular Mammogram Screenings Reduce Breast Cancer Mortality

Early detection is the best prevention. This is one of the main marketing slogans when it comes to breast cancer screening. According to the CDC, “For many women, mammograms are the best way to find breast cancer early, when it is easier to treat and before it is big enough to feel or cause symptoms. Having regular mammograms can lower the risk of dying from breast cancer. At this time, a mammogram is the best way to find breast cancer for most women.”

But do regular mammograms really lower the risk of dying from breast cancer? A study that was posted on PubMed (National Library of Medicine) found that mammography is unjustified. According to this study that looked at breast-cancer mortality in Sweden, where mammography screening has been recommended since 1985, there was indeed a decrease in breast cancer mortality, however, mammography screenings were also associated with an increase in total mortality.

If the Swedish trials are judged to be unbiased, the data show that for every 1,000 women screened biennially throughout 12 years, one breast cancer death is avoided whereas the total number of deaths is increased by six! Read more about this study on PubMed.

Another study (and one of the largest and longest studies of mammography) that followed women aged 40-59 for 25 years, found that mammograms have absolutely no impact on breast cancer mortality. In addition, “One in five cancers found with mammography and treated was not a threat to the woman’s health and did not need treatment such as chemotherapy, surgery or radiation” according to the New York Times article. For every 424 women who received mammography screening in the trial, there was one over-diagnosed breast cancer case.

Here’s how Dr. Otis Webb Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, describes overdiagnosis, “…a tumor that fulfills all laboratory criteria to be called cancer but, if left alone, would never cause harm. This is a tumor that will not continue to grow, spread and kill. It is a tumor that can be cured with treatment but does not need to be treated and/or cured.”

The national expenditure for false-positive mammograms and breast cancer overdiagnoses is estimated at $4 billion a year, according to this study on PubMed.

Mammograms are marketed as a life-saving preventative treatment, but if 22% are being over-diagnosed, is this diagnostic treatment as beneficial as it has been claimed to be, especially if these women are told they need to go through treatments such as chemotherapy when it actually would have cleared up on its own?

A 2012 Norwegian study found similar results – where as many as 25% of women are consistently overdiagnosed with breast cancer that, if left alone, would never caused them any harm.

This brings us to the question, is there a better option? We believe there is. Be sure to check out our Best Breast Health (BBH) program for more information.