Currently under review. The use of mammography, like that of clinical breast examination, leads to many false positive results and their associated adverse psychological effects. In addition, many women find the procedure uncomfortable and embarrassing. Furthermore, radiologists may differ considerably in their interpretations of the same mammogram. However, the expert panels uniformly advocate the use of mammography in women 50 to 69 years of age because it has been shown to reduce mortality from breast cancer by about 30 percent.
Many controversies regarding mammographic screening still exist.
There is also controversy about whether younger women should undergo periodic mammography. In the first part of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study, more small, node-negative tumors were found in women 40 to 49 years of age who had undergone annual physical examination and mammography than were found in women in this age group who had not undergone such screening. However, mortality from breast cancer was not reduced in the screened women in as long as seven years of follow-up. Even if mammography is ultimately proved to reduce mortality from breast cancer in younger women, it has been estimated that if 10,000 women 40 to 49 years of age are screened with a single mammogram, the cost of extending one or two lives will be nearly 500 false positive results and 100 to 200 invasive procedures. For women 70 years of age and older, there are inadequate data to draw firm conclusions about the utility of mammographic screening.