Reduction In Late Stage Breast Malignancy With Mammography

According to a latest research published in the scientific journal Cancer, investigators have identified that the incidence of advanced breast malignancy has decreased by 37 percent in the general population. Report suggested that this decline in the number of cases can be attributed to the extensive use of cost-effective preventive strategies (such as mammography) in the past 30-years.

The researchers of University of Michigan analyzed the efficacy of mammography at reducing the risk of breast malignancy by comparing the data from the National Institutes of Health SEER. The scientists mainly compared the data of the early and late stage breast cancers when screening by mammography was not a standard screening tool (i.e. from 1977 and 1979) and analyzed the results obtained in recent years (between 2007 and 2009).

The researchers also noticed that the incident breast cancer cases has increased by about 1.3 percent each year. By using this assumption, they used the data from 1970s to project the statistics over the next 30 years and then compared the actual data obtained in 2007 to 2009.

It was observed that the prevalence of invasive breast cancer has decreased by about 9 percent. From 1977-2009, the advanced-stage diagnosis decreased by 37 percent while there was 48 percent increase in early-stage diagnosis.

The researchers said that the concluded result suggests that the mammograms are helpful in diagnosing more cases of breast cancers at an early-stage (that makes treatment and management fairly easy). The investigators suggested that the benefits of annual mammography screening are immense and should be encouraged in healthy women.