Mammographic screening starting in the 5th or the 6th decade of life

Mammography is an established diagnostic procedure for breast cancer. Data concerning screening mammography are available from nine prospectively cont rolled trials, the largest series being presented from Sweden. Mammographic screening leads to a significant reduction of breast cancer of 30% in wome n ages 50-59 years. In younger women (40-49 years) the benefit accounts to only 20 % and has not proven to be statistically significant. Nevertheless, the major advantage of mammographic screening is detection of the non-palp able tumor less than or equal to 10 mm in size. The treatment of these smal l breast carcinomas leads to long-term survival rates of greater than or eq ual to 90 %. Mammographic screening programs have been introduced in the US A, Canada, Iceland and Sweden for women in their 5th decade of life. Starli ng yearly lifelong mammography-screening at the age of 40, the theoretical cancer induction by radiation exposure does not exceed 0.1%. Under highly q ualified conditions, it should be possible to minimize false-positive and f alse-negative screening results. In;Germany, screening-mammography is only introduced in patients at high risk for breast cancer. Based on medical dat a, mammography must be a part of screening for women with an average risk - starting at the age of 40, although there are still open questions needing further clinical research.