Researchers have earlier claimed that the recent decline in the number of breast cancer cases is due to the reduced use of hormone replacement therapy. But as always, not all claims are accepted by all researchers. Some researchers did their own analyses and made another claim that mammography screening is at least partly responsible for the decline.
“The message for women over 40 is still, they should get a mammogram every year so the tumor [if there is one] can be detected,” Ahmedin Jemal was quoted by healthday.com as saying. Jemal is strategic director for cancer surveillance for the American Cancer Society, an organization that is in close liaison with the medical circle.
An earlier study reported in December by researchers from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston suggested a nearly 7 percent decline in U.S. breast cancer cases in the years 2002 to 2003 is due to reduced use of hormone replacement therapy although not everyone agrees. After all, that is only an observational association.
But the suggestion does not seem unreasonable. According to Bostob.com, sales of Wyeth’s Preparin and Prempro, which are used for the hormone replacement therapy and once generated $2 billion a year, dropped by 70 percent during the period between 2002 and 2006. Although the decline in breast cancer cases did not continue after 2003, but the cases of the disease did not increase either. In addition, hormones of concern have been linked with increased risk of breast cancer, which resulted in premature discontinuation of part of the Women’s Health Initiative.
Now a new study attempted to find other explanations for the declining of breast cancer cases and tried to tie the decline with mammography screening. For such an effect, some researchers looked at older data for the period between 1975 and 2003, according to Forbes.com and they found something different.
“Two distinct patterns are observed in breast cancer trends,” wrote Ahmedin Jemal in a report published in the May 3 online edition of the journal Breast Cancer Research. According to Jamel as cited by healthday.com, breast cancer cases also dropped by about 5 percent between 1999 and 2000. Jamel was cited as saying “the point is breast cancer started to decrease before 2002″ and adding “screening mammograms were the reason.’
Jamel was only cited by healthday.com as saying “The decline in breast cancer rates directly attributed to mammography has now leveled off.”
The story does not cite any explanation why mammography screening was associated with the reduced number of breast cancer.
Use of mammograms per se can? really reduce the cases of breast cancer. On the contrary, repeated use of mammograms can potentially increase the risk of developing breast cancer as the radiation used is carcinogenic, which was recognized by the U.S. government in 2005.
However, when doctors of the ACS say that mammography screening may be one of the reasons for the decline in the number of breast cancer cases, they may be talking about the medical intervention following the screening, which may have an effect on the cases of breast cancer.
Further readings on hormone therapy and mammograms and breast cancer
