Missing first mammogram tied to higher breast cancer mortality

Women who do not attend their first mammography screening face a substantially higher longterm risk of dying from breast cancer, researchers reported after tracking hundreds of thousands of Swedish women for up to 25 years. The study, led by investigators at Karolinska Institutet and published in the British Medical Journal, found that women who skipped their initial screening invitation between 1991 and 2020 were less likely to attend later screens, more often developed advanced disease when cancer was diagnosed, and had a 40 percent higher breast cancer mortality risk over 25 years than those who attended.

The analysis used regional screening records and national health registries covering almost 433,000 women in Stockholm. About 32 percent did not take up their first offer of screening. After adjustment for social, economic, reproductive and health factors, breast cancer death rates over 25 years were 9.9 per 1,000 women among first‑screen nonparticipants versus 7 per 1,000 among participants, equivalent to roughly 1.0 percent versus 0.7 percent. Overall incidence of breast cancer was similar between the groups, about 7.7 percent, a finding the authors say points to delayed...