(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Most young women treated with chest radiation for childhood cancer don't undergo the recommended mammography screening, a new study finds.

There are currently 20,000 to 25,000 women 25 years or older who were treated for pediatric cancer with moderate- to high-dose chest radiation. These women have an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life, an increase that begins as early as eight years following radiation. A breast cancer diagnosis for these women is typically made between the ages of 32 and 35. By age 45, 12 to 20 percent of those survivors will discover they have the most common cancer among women.

Experts recommend these women start annual mammography screenings when they are 25 years old or eight years after their radiation treatment, but a new study reveals many are not taking this critical step.

In a study by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, N.Y., 625 female survivors of pediatric cancer between ages 25 and 50 who had received chest radiation therapy (RT) filled out a questionnaire. Results revealed 36.5 percent of those ages 25 to 39 had a screening mammogram within the past two years while 47.3 percent had never had a mammogram and only 23.3 percent had one performed in the past year. Women ages 25 through 39 were three times more likely to have had a mammogram when their physician recommended the test.

Women ages 40 to 50 were more likely to have had a mammogram performed; 76.5 percent had a screening within the past two years. Still, only a little more than half of the women in this age group (52.6 percent) had been screened regularly.

"Findings from this study should provide the foundation for targeted interventions involving both clinicians and cancer survivors," study authors wrote.

SOURCE: JAMA, 2009;301:404-414