Senators Tell of Mammogram Confusion

The debate over mammograms has confused and frustrated women already frightened of breast cancer, senators told scientists involved in the issue Thursday.

“Women don’t know who to believe or what to do,” said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.).

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told of a niece whose mother died of breast cancer and who always was told to get mammograms. She telephoned him recently to say, “Uncle Tom, what am I supposed to do now?”

A Danish investigation of mammography studies last fall concluded they are so flawed that it is impossible to tell whether routine mammograms reduce cancer deaths.

In January, a panel that analyzes data for the National Cancer Institute agreed that the Danish work raised serious doubts.

The institute itself urges women to get regular mammograms. Breast cancer deaths are falling by 3.2% a year, an improvement partly as a result of catching tumors earlier with mammograms and partly to better treatments, the institute’s director, Andrew von Eschenbach, told senators.