Grant: Operating Grant

We know that screening mammograms to find breast cancer save lives, from many reliable studies. However, no reliable study has ever been done to find out if the same is true about check-up mammograms for breast cancer survivors. There are many reasons why we cannot just assume that they would. One reason is that some survivors will die because of secondary cancer eventually showing up elsewhere in the body from the original cancer. Another reason is that it is often difficult to understand mammograms of women who have had radiotherapy, they might not be so accurate. We have prepared a study that would determine if survivors who have mammograms and who have breast cancer recurrence in the same breast or a new cancer in the opposite breast are less likely to die from breast cancer compared to survivors who do not have the mammograms. This is important. We know that only about 60% of survivors have these mammograms regularly. If we can show that it saves lives, we must make strenuous efforts to promote these mammograms; but if it does not save lives, it would not be appropriate to try to get every survivor to do these mammograms.