Some older women may not benefit from annual breast cancer screenings, according to a study published Aug. 8 in Annals of Internal Medicine. Continued mammograms after age 70 may cause what researchers labeled "overdiagnosis" of the disease.
"Overdiagnosis is increasingly recognized as a harm of breast cancer screening, particularly for older women," the report said, noting that risk of cancer continues as women age but that the cancers detected often would not cause symptoms in a person's lifetime.
Researchers at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale School of Medicine analyzed breast cancer diagnoses data from 54,635 women, dividing the data into three age groups within two "screened" and "unscreened" subsets. The age groups examined were: 70 to 74 years old, 75 to 84 years old and 85 and older. The study found that women in all three age groups were more likely to be diagnosed with additional breast cancers as they aged.