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Screening mammography intervals among postmenopausal hormone therapy users and nonusers.
Tracy Onega1, Todd MacKenzie, Julia Weiss
1Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, USA. onega@dartmouth.edu
Cancer Causes & Control : CCC
|October 22, 2009
Summary
Postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) use does not significantly affect mammography screening intervals. This suggests reduced screening adherence is unlikely to explain the recent decline in breast cancer incidence rates.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- The decline in US breast cancer incidence has been linked to reduced postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) use.
- An alternative hypothesis suggests decreased adherence to mammography screening among women not renewing HT prescriptions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) use influences mammography screening intervals.
- To determine if reduced screening adherence explains the observed decrease in breast cancer incidence.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of mammography data from the New Hampshire Mammography Network (1995-2007).
- Comparison of screening mammogram intervals between postmenopausal women using and not using HT.
- Utilized linear mixed effects models to assess differences in screening intervals.
Main Results:
- Included 310,185 mammograms from 76,192 postmenopausal women.
- Median screening interval for HT users was 13.0 months; for non-users, it was 13.1 months.
- Nearly all mammograms (98.5% and 98.1%) occurred within a 2-year interval, irrespective of HT use.
Conclusions:
- Screening mammography intervals are similar for postmenopausal women using or not using HT.
- Reduced screening mammography utilization is unlikely to be the primary driver for the decrease in breast cancer incidence post-WHI report.
