from journal Radiology
The value of mammography for older women has been the subject of debate in recent years, despite the fact that women over seventy-five are at highest risk for breast cancer. A study in the journal Radiology provides some food for thought. It shows breast cancer detected by mammography is associated with earlier stage diagnosis in older women, thus reducing the rate of more advanced, difficult to treat cases. University of Washington researchers reviewed more than fourteen thousand breast cancer cases, with sixteen hundred of them in women over seventy-five. They say longer life expectancies for women and longer survival rates for breast cancer are increasing the importance of early detection—that the average seventy-five year old woman today has a life expectancy of another thirteen years, making mammograms well worthwhile.