A trial looking at follow up mammograms for women over 50 who have had breast cancer (Mammo-50)

This trial is looking at follow up mammograms for women aged 50 years and over who have had breast cancer.

After you finish treatment for breast cancer, you have regular outpatient appointments to check how you are. You also have mammograms to check that your cancer hasn’t come back.

Guidelines recommend that women under 50 have mammograms every year after treatment for breast cancer. But doctors aren’t sure how often women over 50 should have them, or how long for. So practice in hospitals across the UK can vary for women in this age group.

Yearly mammograms can be costly for the health service as well as causing anxiety in some women. Some research suggests that women over 50 may be able to have fewer mammograms if they are followed up and supported in other ways.

The aims of this trial are to

• Find out if having mammograms less frequently will be as good as yearly mammograms in women over 50

• See if having fewer mammograms causes more (or less) anxiety for women

• Learn more about other follow up methods (such as clinic appointments with a doctor or nurse, or telephone follow ups) to see how these affect a woman's quality of life