Drop in U.S. mammography rate worries cancer experts

U.S. women are getting mammograms to screen for breast cancer at declining rates, according to a study describing a trend that experts fear may portend a reversal of progress against the deadly disease.

The percentage of women 40 and older saying they had a mammogram within the past two years slipped from 70 percent in 2000 to 66 percent in 2005, according to the study appearing on Monday in the journal Cancer.

This upends big increases since the 1980s. The mammography rate for women past the age of 40 was only 39 percent in 1987.
Researchers led by Dr. Nancy Breen of the
National Cancer Institute said the findings followed previous indications from various parts of the country that the popularity of mammograms was ebbing.

"It's quite an unusual and disconcerting finding," Breen said in a telephone interview. "It comes as a surprise because there's no reason you'd think there'd be a drop in mammography."

But other experts point to a number of possible reasons, including insurance issues and recent doubts cast on the benefits of mammograms -- breast X-rays that women notoriously dislike because of the discomfort involved.

Most studies show that widespread use of mammograms have made early detection of breast cancer more common and reduced death rates from the disease.

Mammograms are used to screen healthy women for signs of breast cancer and are considered a crucial tool to detect the disease at its earliest stages when it is most treatable.

The study found declines among groups who traditionally have used mammography at high rates, including higher-income and better-educated women, those in ages 50 to 64 and non-Hispanic whites.

The findings were based on a scientific survey of about 10,000 U.S. women 40 and older by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Breen said. Mammography rates stagnated between 2000 to 2003 and then dropped in 2005, she said.