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Girls who miss their first mammogram run the next danger of being recognized with superior breast most cancers and dying from the illness. That is proven in a brand new examine from Karolinska Institutet revealed in BMJ.
Because the early Nineteen Nineties, girls in Sweden have been provided common mammograms, which has contributed to a lower in breast most cancers mortality. Regardless of this, a major proportion select to not attend their first examination.
The researchers behind the brand new examine wished to analyze the long-term penalties of this. The examine relies on knowledge from the Swedish mammography screening program and nationwide well being registries, and covers virtually 433,000 girls in Stockholm between 1991 and 2020, with follow-up for as much as 25 years.
The outcomes present that 32% of all girls who have been invited to their first screening declined. These girls have been additionally much less prone to take part in future examinations, which regularly led to a later analysis and poorer prognosis.
“Skipping the first mammogram is a strong indicator of who is at risk of late detection and higher mortality. Our results show that missing the first mammogram is not just a one-time choice, but often marks the beginning of a long-term pattern of not attending check-ups,” says the examine’s first writer, Ziyan Ma, a doctoral scholar on the Division of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet.
When girls who skipped their first screening have been later recognized with breast most cancers, the illness was extra typically detected at a extra superior stage.
The chance of growing stage III most cancers was roughly 1.5 occasions increased, and for stage IV, the chance was as a lot as 3.6 occasions increased in comparison with those that participated within the first mammogram.
Over a 25-year follow-up interval, virtually 1% of those that didn’t take part had died of breast most cancers, in contrast with 0.7% among the many individuals—a distinction that corresponds to a 40% increased danger of dying from the illness.
Nonetheless, the entire proportion of girls who developed breast most cancers was virtually the identical in each teams, roughly 7.7%. In response to the researchers, this exhibits that the elevated mortality is especially on account of delayed detection quite than extra instances of the illness.
“Family history is a well-known, unchangeable risk factor for breast cancer. Our study shows that missing the very first screening examination carries a similar mortality risk—but unlike family history, this is a behavior that we can change,” says the examine’s final writer, Kamila Czene, professor on the Division of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet.
“Since over 30% of women skip their first screening, increased participation could save many lives. Since this group can be identified early, decades before deaths occur, health care providers have a chance to intervene with reminders or support to encourage participation.”
Extra info:
First mammography screening participation and breast most cancers incidence and mortality within the subsequent 25 years: population-based cohort examine, BMJ (2025). DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2025-085029
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Karolinska Institutet
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Girls who miss their first mammogram face increased danger of breast most cancers dying, examine finds (2025, September 24)
retrieved 24 September 2025
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