And early detection may mean less invasive treatment. Many of these women are middle-aged or older.
Many women think that estrogen causes cancer.
They then conclude that the decrease in estrogen levels after menopause means that a woman is less likely to get breast cancer. Regular mammograms save lives for older women, and could save many more if women were tested regularly. Screening needs to occur regularly to pick up the very tiny lesions that may not have been big enough to be seen on one mammogram but that will become visible in a later year. A negative study one year does not reduce the chances of finding breast cancer in a future year. In 1994, approximately 182,000 women were newly diagnosed, and 46,000 women died as a result of breast cancer.