too little benefit from regular mammogram in women in their 40s

Screening by routine mammogram is intended to catch breast cancer in women while it is still small and presumably easier to treat. So far, annual or biennial mammography has been advised to women starting from the age of 40. Some recently collected data have shown, however, that regular mammogram provides very modest benefit in terms of reducing death for breast cancer in women aged 40 to 49.  In fact, without screening, 3.5 out of every 1,000 women in this age group will die of breast cancer in the next 10 years but regular mammography reduces that number to 3, i.e. the benefit derived from screening is only 0.5 per 1000 women!.  Indeed, it has also been calculated that to save one life  in this age group, 1,900 women must be screened annually for 10 years. The other 1,899 women will receive no benefit from mammography over that period, though they will field 1,330 call-backs for reassessment and 665 breast biopsies, and eight of them will be diagnosed with cancers whose prognosis will not be altered by detection via mammogram — either because they would never become dangerous or because they are so aggressive that there's little to be done. Data reported in recently published studies wherein women were randomly assigned to either a screening and a non screening group seem to confirm this contention. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force thus decided in November 2009 that whether the benefits are worth the risks is a value judgment each woman should make for herself. Regular mammogram is instead highly reccomended after the age of 50 due to a significantly increased risk of breast cancer.  In developing countries the incidence of breast cancer is significantly lower than in high income developed world but mortality due to the tumor is much higher. Even if the chance of detecting breast cancer in women younger than 50 is rather remote, the higher risk of dying of the disease may suggest that regular mammogram in women of developing countries in their 40s should still be encouraged .