Follow up after early stage breast cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

An annual mammogram and a doctor visit are as good as more intensive tests for monitoring women after treatment for early breast cancer.
Follow up is vital after treatment for breast cancer, to check whether the disease has recurred. Often various lab tests, which are costly and invasive, are carried out for monitoring purposes. But these may not be needed in the case of early stage breast cancer.

A team at the Mario Negri Institute, Italy, has reviewed evidence covering over 3,000 patients and compared various approaches to post-treatment monitoring in early breast cancer. They find that an annual mammogram and doctor visit is quite sufficient. More invasive monitoring does not add benefit in terms of catching a recurrence or improving survival. Women may, they add, feel more reassured by the more intensive follow up. But maybe they can be persuaded that a simpler approach is equally effective.

Source
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005 Issue 1

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