Researchers Question Benefits Of Breast Cancer Screenings

Boston (dbTechno) - Researchers have come out and questioned the true benefits of breast cancer screenings after it was revealed that they may not be as effective as previously thought.

The study was led by John Keen of the John H. Stroger Jr. from the University of Nebraska, and aimed to focus on these breast cancer screenings.

What they wanted to discover was just how many lives these screenings actually saved, and if the benefits were worth it.

They based the data that they found on women who were over the age of 50 and were being screened each and every year.

They discovered that when this took place, the breast cancer screenings, over a 15-year period, saved 1.8 lives per 1,000 women being screened.

This may not be a lot, but it still shows that the breast cancer screenings save lives.

What they also found was that nearly 3,000 mammograms need to be conducted on women, with 23 cases of cancer being detected in order to save a life.

Researchers underlined it by stating that for a women to be screened,  there is under a 5% chance the screening will save her life.

The study has been published in the journal BioMed Central Medical Informatics and Decision Making.