Regular mammography helps elderly women

Regular mammography benefits women older than 75, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Medicine.

Led by Maureen Sanderson, PhD, from Meharry Medical College, the group used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data linked to Medicare claims files to identify screening mammography use from 1995 to 2009 in more than 64,000 non-Hispanic women (4,886 black and 59,498 white). They parsed the data into three categories: no or irregular mammography, biennial mammography, and annual mammography (Am J Med, December 2015, Vol. 128:12, pp. 1362.e7-1362.e14).

Black and white women ages 75 to 84 years who had an annual mammogram had lower 10-year breast cancer mortality than corresponding women who had biennial or no/irregular mammograms, the researchers found. In fact, 10-year risk was more than three times higher among white women and more than two times higher among black women ages 69 to 84 years with no or irregular screening compared with annual screening.