HHS HealthBeat (May 11, 2006)

Missing the mammogram

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Regular mammograms can help women beat breast cancer by giving doctors a chance to spot it early when it's more treatable. But some women aren't getting those X-rays. And one researcher says minority women, notably black women, are more likely to go without.

Rebecca Smith-Bindman of the University of California, San Francisco looked at data on more than one million women. Her study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in Annals of Internal Medicine:

"We looked at a large number of women with breast cancer, and asked the question, ‘Have they been adequately screened with mammography?' And 34 percent of African American who had breast cancer were not adequately screened with mammography." (12 seconds)

The National Cancer Institute says women in their 40s and older should have mammograms every one to two years.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August, 15 2006