[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 61 (Monday, April 3, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO RESEARCHERS TO BE COMMENDED FOR IMPORTANT STUDY 
                             ON MAMMOGRAMS

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                        HON. PATRICIA SCHROEDER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 3, 1995
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, less than a decade ago a Government task 
force and the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues sounded the alarm 
about the lack of research on women's health. Since then, there have 
been many positive advances, among them more extensive research into 
breast cancer, the leading cause of death for women aged 40 to 44 and 
the leading cause of cancer death for women aged 15 to 54. Mammography 
is still one of the few tools we have for detection of breast cancer. 
For women over age 50, the value of mammography is uncontested. But 
there has been ongoing controversy about its effectiveness for women in 
their forties. We are closer to resolving that controversy because of 
the work of two University of Colorado researchers and their 
colleagues. Their study, the ``Benefits of Mammography Screening in 
Women Ages 40 to 49 Years,'' appears in the April 1 issue of the 
American Cancer Society's journal, Cancer. It shows that regular 
mammography for these women can significantly reduce deaths from breast 
cancer. It is with the help of good research such as this that we will 
be able to offer women more definitive guidance about a disease that is 
expected to kill 46,000 of them in this country this year and afflict 
another 182,000. I submit a March 21 Denver Post article telling about 
this important study.
                 [From the Denver Post, Mar. 21, 1995]

                      Study Backs Mammograms at 40

                           (By Ann Schrader)

       Regular mammography in women 40 to 49 years old can 
     significantly reduce deaths from breast cancer, according to 
     a study by two University of Colorado researchers and their 
     colleagues.
       The report in the April 1 issue of the American Cancer 
     Society journal Cancer comes as debate continues over the 
     benefits of routine screening.
       ``I would hope that the results are that women and their 
     physicians would choose mammography screening starting at age 
     40 in most cases,'' said Ed Hendrick, chief of radiological 
     services at the CU Health Sciences Center. ``I don't think 
     we'll see an impact on the National Cancer Institute's 
     guidelines until there is more data in,'' he added.
       Several European and Scandinavian countries are conducting 
     mammography studies.
       In 1989, the American Cancer Society, National Cancer 
     Institute and 11 other organizations agreed on mammography 
     guidelines that called for regular screenings every one to 
     two years for women who are 40 to 49 years old and have no 
     symptoms.
       But three years later, the guideline consensus crumbled 
     with publication of a Canadian study that showed no benefit 
     from regular mammography. The National Cancer Institute 
     withdrew support of the guidelines while the American Cancer 
     Society decided there was insufficient evidence to change the 
     recommendations.
       The study included eight controlled trials of regular 
     mammography of women ages 40 to 49 years. The authors focused 
     on data from 1963 to 1988.
       Hendrick, CU colleague James Rutledge, Dr. Charles Smart, 
     formerly of the National Cancer Institute, and Robert A Smith 
     of the American Cancer Society followed up the women seven to 
     18 years later rather than just seven years in the Canadian 
     study. Their conclusion was that routine screening can reduce 
     breast cancer deaths when combined with adequate followup.
       Hendrick noted that the quality of mammography today ``is 
     much better than that used in most of the trials. That means 
     we're even better at detecting small cancers and reducing the 
     death rate.''
       Smith of the American Cancer Society said a trend toward 
     benefiting from mammography has appeared later in the 40- to 
     49-year-old group compared with women over 50 years.
       ``Women in this age group diagnosed with breast cancer are 
     healthier than older women and in general their survival is 
     better,'' Smith said.
     

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