Mammography helps detect breast cancer, but it may increase the risk of breast cancer in young women with a genetic predisposition, suggests a study published in the British Medical Journal. MRI is safer in these patients.
Such suspicions have arisen before, but the most recent study is the largest to date. It confirms that women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which increase the risk of breast cancer fivefold, should undergo magnetic resonance instead of mammography. This study does not use x-rays.
MRI is more expensive, but just as effective in detecting breast cancer. In some European countries, such as the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, doctors recommend them to women under 30 who are at higher risk for the disease.
However, it is not enough to give up mammography. Chest x-ray examination is equally unfavorable for these women.
The latest observations covered almost 2 thousand. women over 18 years of age living in Great Britain, France and the Netherlands. They found that out of 100 of these women, 9 could develop breast cancer by the age of XNUMX. This risk increases fivefold if they undergo even one mammography before they are XNUMX.
Other X-ray studies are disadvantageous, albeit to a lesser extent. Their harmfulness depends on how early they were carried out. In women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations who underwent a chest X-ray before the age of 20, the risk of developing a breast tumor increases by 62%. It is smaller when the test is carried out at a later age, but before the age of thirty. The risk then increases by 42%. In your thirties, a chest X-ray no longer increases your risk of breast cancer, or so studies suggest.
Dr. Anouk Pijpe from the Dutch Cancer Institute in Amsterdam says that countries that still perform mammography on women under 30 with a genetic predisposition to breast cancer should give up on it.
More cautious in these recommendations is Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, director of medical service of the American Cancer Society. In his opinion, doctors should only weigh the advantages and disadvantages of such an examination with patients. ACS recommends annual mammography in women with a genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
The American specialist also warns that women with both mutations should not be afraid of chest X-rays. “There may be times when they are essential,” he adds.
The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are found in one in 400 females, but they are even more common in Eastern European Jewish women.
Mammography is recommended for women over 50. Opinions are divided among specialists whether it should be used in younger women, after the age of 40. (PAP)
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