Outcomes of Screening Mammography in Elderly Women
Abstract
There is uncertainty about whether women older than age 65 should undergo screening mammography. Although screening mammography may benefit some elderly women through the detection of early breast cancer, it may potentially harm other women through false positive diagnoses and the diction and surgical treatment of clinically insignificant lesions. Further it is not known how the use of mammography and breast cancer outcomes varies by demographic factors such as race and ethnicity. The research designed in this proposal was targeted to try to understand the balance between benefit and harm associated with mammography screening. Much of the research involved the design and implementation of data analyses of data from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, data from the National Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program and data from the NCI funded Breast Cancer Surveillance System. Additional related projects were focused on assessing the quality of mammography and the outcomes associated with mammographic screening. Further the specific aims of this research will evaluate 1) differences in breast cancer mortality, 2) differences in breast cancer treatment and 3) differences in breast cancer tumor attributes between women who were screened and those who were not, by age and race and ethnicity. The project involves defining whether Medicare billing claims data were accurate for assessment of mammography utilization and completion of the outlined aims once these data were shown to be reliable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA469869
Entities
People
- Rebecca Smith-bindman
Organizations
- University of California, San Francisco