A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has found that routine mammograms combined with therapy help bring down the number of breast cancer deaths substantially. In some cases a combination of screening with some therapies knocked the death rate down by one third.

The researchers involved in this study say that the important thing here is a combination of therapy and routine screenings. Neither screenings on their own nor therapies on their own bring down the death rates significantly.

When a woman has a mammogram her breast has to be flattened. This is to make sure that the edges are not overexposed during the X-ray procedure. If the breast is not flattened the centre will be underexposed and the edges overexposed – the picture will be much less reliable.

The advantage of having regular mammograms is that some cancers are very difficult to spot. If the radiologist can compare the current image with previous ones there is a better chance of spotting things that were not there before.

Doctors say that women should have one mammogram every three years after the age of 40, this should be increased to one every year when they reach 50.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today