07 Jan Study Finds Regular Mammography May Provide Benefit Up To Age 84
Prof. Hennekens
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Charles Hennekens MD Dr.P.H
Sir Richard Doll Professor
Senior Academic Advisor to the Dean
Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Prof. Hennekens: Randomized evidence indicates clear benefits of mammography in middle age and, at present, most guidelines recommend regular mammography for women up to age 74. In collaboration with colleagues at Baylor Medical College and Meharry Medical School we were able to link the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data to the Medicare administrative claims data. We found that, up to 84 years, screening was more common among whites than blacks and women receiving regular annual screening mammography had lower risks of mortality from breast cancer.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Prof. Hennekens: These are observational and claims data useful to formulate, not test hypotheses, but the findings raise important questions for researchers and clinicians, namely that efforts are necessary to decrease racial disparities in mammography utilization and that regular mammography may provide clinical benefits up to age 84.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Prof. Hennekens: Analytic epidemiological studies are necessary to test the hypotheses formulated from these data, including that changes in Medicare mammography utilization may have inadvertently contributed to disparities in mortality from breast cancer; that reliance on claims data may be superior to reliance on self-reports of mammography; and that mammography benefits may extend into the oldest old.
Citation:
Mammography Screening Among the Elderly: A Research Challenge.
Am J Med. 2015 Dec;128(12):1362.e7-1362.e14. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2015.06.032. Epub 2015 Jul 11.
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Professor Charles Hennekens MD Dr.P.H (2016). Study Finds Regular Mammography May Provide Benefit Up To Age 84
Last Updated on January 7, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD