The value of breast screening in women less than fifty years of age

Abstract

In the 4 yr this Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project was receiving patients, 5810 women under the age of 50 were examined. Screening of asymptomatic women by xeromammography is of advantage in this group whose greatest cause of death is cancer of the breast; 71.8% of their cancers were found by xeromammography. Of these, 43.8% had in situ cancer and only 12.5% of those cancers found had axillary spread. This group should have a 5 yr cure rate of 87.1% rather than 63% as is the experience of unscreened women. The absorbed rads averaged 0.4632 to each breast per year. At the end of 5 yr this would cause an estimated increase in risk from 7 to 7.162%. To increase the survival rate by 24.1% against a theoretical increased risk of 0.16% is worthwhile.