Editorial Board

Too Many Mammograms

Public perception of what good -- and harm -- mammograms can do has not kept up with the scientific evidence. Here's why and what to do about it.

February 12, 2014 at 6:57 PM UTC

By The Editorial Board

The Editorial Board publishes the views of the editors across a range of national and global affairs.

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A 25-year study of 90,000 women has found that mammograms do nothing to lower the death rate from breast cancer. That's pretty strong evidence, to say the least. And it's only the latest from many studies over the last several years indicating that mammography often doesn't help prevent advanced cancer.

Yet women -- and, even more crucially, their doctors -- remain unwilling to give up annual mammograms. Five years ago, when a panel of experts convened by the U.S. government looked at the available evidence and concluded that women in their 40s should stop being screened for breast cancer, and that those aged 50 to 75 should be screened only every other year, 3 in 4 women said they simply disagreed. The secretary of Health and Human Services felt obliged to speak out against the experts' recommendation.