Improving Breast Cancer Survival Rates
Reported October 27, 2005

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Breast Cancer deaths are declining due to a combination of early detection through screening mammography and improved adjuvant treatments, according to the research announced in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The combination of screening and adjuvant therapy reduced the breast cancer rate by approximately 25 percent to 35 percent. Seven research groups, including The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, conducted the study.

The research was an attempt to solve the much-debated argument of whether screening, better treatment, or the combination of the two was responsible for the recent improvement in breast cancer survival rates. While the research had conflicting conclusions on how much each helped on their own, it was agreed the combination of the two did help the survival rates.

Donald Berry, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Applied Mathematics at M.S. Anderson Cancer Center, says, "Screening would have no benefit if not followed by treatment, including surgery, and treatment has the potential to be more effective if cancer is detected at earlier stages by screening."

Berry further stresses the contradictions in the research were due to different interpretations and not conflicting views about the usefulness of combining screening and therapy.

SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, 2005;353:1784-1792