Concerns over decline in women getting mammograms

Apparently the number of women getting mammograms is declining. In the US, the percentage of women 40 and older who had mammograms with in the past two years has gone down from 70% in 2000, to just 66% in 2006. Dr. Nancy Breen of the National Cancer Institute says that, "It's quite an unusual and disconcerting finding.It comes as a surprise because there's no reason you'd think there'd be a drop in mammography." However, experts are saying that there are plenty of reasons why less women are getting their mammograms, such as insurance costs, and the recent doubts that mammograms are the best way to detect breast cancer. This trend is extremely worrying, as Robert Smith, the American Cancer Society's director of cancer screening, says that this could result in more deaths caused by undetected breast cancer: "A decline in mammography utilization is going to result in a higher rate of cancers diagnosed at an advanced stage. And that will mean more aggressive treatment, and in some instances it may mean that women who would have survived if their cancer had been found earlier will not survive." Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in women behind only lung cancer, and it is extremely important that women don't slack on getting their mammograms, or doing their monthly self breast exams.

[via CNN]

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