9379
0
Posted on Apr 22, 2008, 8 p.m.
By Jeanelle Topping
Women over the age of 70 can still benefit from mammograms - despite many countries not offering the screening to elderly women.
Women over the age of 70 can still benefit from mammograms - despite many countries not offering the screening to elderly women.
According to a study by Jacques Fracheboud, a researcher at Rotterdam's Erasmus Medical Center, mammograms were extended to women up to the age of 75 in Holland 20 years ago, resulting in a reduction in the number of cancer-related deaths within the age group.
Commenting on the findings, Mr Fracheboud explained: "That means that women, aged 70 to 75 at the time that screening was extended to this age group, have become five years older and the reduction in breast cancer mortality shows that the screening has started to have a statistically significant effect."
Statistics for breast cancer deaths in Holland show that by 2006 the fatality rate for woman aged 75 to 79 was 29.5 per cent lower than the average for 1986. In addition, 71.9 per cent of women in the age bracket went for a screening. 
