Reduced mortality rate associated with annual mammograms after breast cancer therapy.
Guidelines have been developed for appropriate posttherapy surveillance for breast cancer recurrence. One purpose of posttherapy surveillance is to detect potentially curable local recurrences and new cancers in the opposite breast. The objective of this investigation was to assess the impact of annual mammography on all-cause mortality in breast cancer survivors. We conducted a case-control analysis nested in a cohort of 865 stage I or II breast cancer patients diagnosed from 1996 to 1999. The exposure variable was the number of mammograms received after completing primary therapy. Cases were decedents and we used risk-set sampling to match eight controls to each case on follow-up time. The mortality rate declined with an increasing number of mammograms (p for trend=0.007). The age- and therapy-adjusted odds ratio associating receipt of an additional mammogram, compared with receipt of no mammogram, equaled 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.53-1.1). These results are consistent with a protective effect of regular surveillance mammography after completing therapy for early stage breast cancer.
Lash
Timothy L
TL
Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA. tlash@bu.edu
Fox
Matthew P
MP
Silliman
Rebecca A
RA
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008499:Medical Records; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology