title: Surveillance mammography and the risk of death among elderly breast cancer patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the benefits of mammography for elderly breast cancer survivors in community settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the 1991-1999 linked SEER-Medicare data, we examined if mammography reduced the risk of breast-cancer-specific and all-cause mortality among women age 66 or older who were diagnosed with first primary breast cancer (FPBC) at stages 0-III and survived at least 30 months. To analyze the influence of mammography (both within one year and within two years prior to death/censoring) on the risk of breast-cancer-specific mortality, we compared women who died of breast cancer (cases) with women who died of other causes or were censored (controls). For an analysis of all-cause mortality, we compared women who died from any cause (cases) with women who were censored (controls). Propensity scores were used to adjust for tumor-related, treatment-related, and sociodemographic confounders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 1351 breast cancer deaths (cases) and 5,262 controls, women who had a mammogram during a one or two-year time interval were less likely to die from breast cancer than women who did not have any mammograms during this time period in propensity-score-adjusted analysis (within one year odds ratio [OR]: 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.72-0.95; within two years OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.70-0.92). Similarly, risk of all-cause mortality was reduced among women who had mammograms during one- or two-year intervals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In community settings, mammography use during a one- or two-year time interval was associated with a small-reduced risk of breast-cancer-specific and all-cause mortality among elderly breast cancer survivors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, 63108, USA. mschootm@wustl.edu
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schootman
authors.forename: Donna B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Jeffe
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lian
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aft
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Gillanders
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018426:SEER Program; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology