What is it about?
It is unclear how screening mammography (SM) recommendations in older women incorporate life expectancy factors (age, functional limitations and health status). In this paper, we evaluated studies on SM utilization in older women by life expectancy factors and found that poor health was associated with decreased SM use, while comorbidities were associated with increased SM use.
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Why is it important?
While there is data supporting the idea that older women have a higher risk of breast cancer and a lower risk of a false-positive mammography, the potential harms and benefits of unnecessary screening mammography is not known. Current practices that avoid older women with limited life expectancy should be reassessed to avoid potential harm.
Perspectives
It is important that SM guidelines consider life expectancy factors like comorbidity and functional status in recommendations for physicians in order to improve assessments of potential benefits and harms in older women.
Dejana Braithwaite
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Screening mammography use in older women according to health status: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Clinical Interventions in Aging, October 2018, Dove Medical Press,
DOI: 10.2147/cia.s171739.
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