If any of you guys want, I can do a literature search and get some of the actual scientific articles on mammography screening and or risk factors. I'm not saying that the HON certified websites aren't great or whatever, because I haven't checked them out - but I always go directly to the source of information as opposed to letting someone collate or interpret it for me because I don't know their agenda or background. It's usually pretty laughable when you see the articles that science writers or reporters make reporting science, and then go read the original articles...

Or you guys can go to pubmed.com, do your searches and if you can't access any of the articles, I can probably download them through my work access.

Here's an excerpt written by Japanese doctors comparing the survival rates & screen between Japan & Europe/US:

Breast Cancer
© The Japanese Breast Cancer Society 2008
10.1007/s12282-008-0077-5
Current status of breast cancer screening in the world

Tadaoki Morimoto, Taeko Nagao, Kenji Okazaki, Misako Kira, Yasushi Nakagawa and Akira Tangoku

Introduction

In Europe and the United States, the mortality associated with breast cancer has decreased (by 20–30%) during a nearly 20-year period, dating from the late 1980s [1]. There are various reasons for this decrease, including an increase in detection of early-stage breast cancers due to increased use of mammographic screening and the establishment of standardized systemic treatments based on evidence-based medicine (EBM) [2, 3]. According to data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER), breast cancer morbidity in the United States has been decreasing since mid-2002. This seems to be related to the first report of the Women’s Health Initiative and the ensuing drop in use of hormone-replacement therapy among postmenopausal women in the United States [4, 5]. However, in Japan, the breast cancer morbidity is increasing; and, in contrast to the overseas situation, the mortality also continues to increase due to a low detection rate for early-stage disease as a result of slow adoption of mammographic screening as well as other reasons [6]. We describe the history of mammographic screening in Europe and the United States and also breast cancer screening in Japan, while also presenting an overview of the current and future statuses of breast cancer screening both overseas and in Japan.
Results of breast cancer screening
Mammographic screening in Europe and the United States
Randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) of mammographic screening have been carried out for some years in Europe and the United States (Fig. 1). There have been various reports of assessment of their efficacy on the basis of the relative risk of death resulting from breast cancer, determined by metaanalysis of the results of those RCTs [7–9]. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reports that the relative risk of such death during a 14-year observation period was 0.84 for all ages, 0.78 for women aged 50 years or older, and 0.85 for those aged 40–49 years (each of these values showed a statistically significant difference). In other words, the breast cancer mortality was reduced by 16, 22, and 15%, respectively, in each of the age brackets in the screening group when compared with the unscreened group (Fig. 2). The conclusions of the USPSTF were as follows: “Based on fair evidence, screening mammography in women aged 40–70 years decreases breast cancer mortality. The benefit is higher for older women, in part because their breast cancer risk is higher” [10, 11]. Many countries in Europe and the United States are carrying out mammographic screening as a national policy, and the screening rate for breast cancer is high (70–80%). This approach has clearly been demonstrated to achieve a statistically significant decrease in breast cancer deaths due to increased detection of early-stage disease.