This may seem like one more study—one of women in Sweden—in which one more match will be thrown on the fires blazing around  the topic of mammogram screening for breast cancer in women.

However, perhaps not. This is a Cochrane Center study. Here is what its website says.

“The Cochrane Collaboration is an international, independent, not-for-profit organisation of over 27,000 contributors from more than 100 countries, dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of health care readily available worldwide.

“We are world leaders in evidence-based health care.

“Our contributors work together to produce systematic assessments of healthcare interventions, known as Cochrane Reviews, which are published online in The Cochrane Library. Cochrane Reviews are intended to help providers, practitioners and patients make informed decisions about health care, and are the most comprehensive, reliable and relevant source of evidence on which to base these decisions.”

Because of the way the Cochrane organization works, it is important to pay attention to this. Their studies are comprehensive and hold up well over time.

On the other hand, many have challenged the abilities of women to perform breast self-exams with the skill necessary to detect tumors. Others, of course, have been calling the question about the merit of mammograms.

The fire is over this. What can women world-wide do to reduce their breast cancer risk? These endless fights over existing screening and self-exams are not addressing the fundamental problem.

What will work to bring down breast cancer risks for women? Women should not be left with no tools to help themselves.

If women and their doctors are, in fact, helpless, say it straight.

If they are not, tell them what they can do.

If any research team has any brilliant ideas, it looks like now is the time to go for the grants. Answers are desperately needed.

Meanwhile, every day, women and their personal physicians have to assess risks and make decisions.

Doing this in an informed way has become nearly impossible in the face of so many conflicting studies.

Reuters

In a study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers from Denmark and Norway said reductions in breast cancer death rates in regions with screening were the same or actually smaller than in areas where no women were screened.

“Our results are similar to what has been observed in other countries with nationally organized programs,” said Karsten Jorgensen of the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, who led the research. “It is time to question whether screening has delivered the promised effect on breast cancer mortality.” (Emphasis added)

“A row blew up in the United States in last November after public health officials on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force questioned the value of screening mammograms for women under 40 and suggested raising the annual screening age to 50.”

Source: Reuters, Publication date listed March 24, 2o1o

Citation: BMJ (British Medical Journal) 2010;340:c1241