Mammograms benefit women up to the age of 75 and 3-yearly screening intervals are best
Berlin, Germany: Breast cancer screening is effective, appropriate and reduces deaths from the disease in women aged up to 75 years old according to new research in over 860,000 women aged 70-75 presented today (Friday) at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) in Berlin. In another study of nearly 100,000 women aged 50-62, also presented at EBCC-6 today, researchers found that the best interval for screening was every three years – a finding that counters arguments that women should have mammograms more frequently.
Many countries that run breast cancer screening programmes offer it to women aged between 50 and 70. However, in 1998 in The Netherlands, the programme was extended to women aged up to 75. The results presented today suggest that this is an appropriate upper age limit and saves lives without causing substantial harm by subjecting older women to over-diagnosis and over-treatment.
This is the first study to provide firm support for the idea that offering mammograms to women up to the age of 75 is effective, as, until 1998, very few women were screened at this age.
Standard chemo works better against metastatic BRCA1/2 breast cancer than against sporadic tumors
Berlin, Germany: The first study to investigate the effects of chemotherapy on metastatic breast cancer in women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation has shown that standard chemotherapy works better in these patients than in women without the BRCA1/2 mutation.
The authors of a study presented today (Thursday) at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) in Berlin found that women with BRCA2-associated breast cancer had a significantly higher response rate, a longer time without the disease progressing, and a longer overall survival when treated with anthracycline-based regimens than did women with sporadic breast cancers that were not associated with BRCA1/2.
Women with BRCA1-associated breast cancer also did better than women with sporadic breast cancer, but the rates were not statistically significant.
