By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO | Mon Oct 24, 2011

(Reuters) - Many women who have survived breast cancer often say it was a mammogram that "saved their life," a powerful testimonial that can encourage other women to get regular breast cancer screening tests.
But what are the chances that the test actually saved a woman's life? Not that great, according to a new analysis published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday.
"The numbers suggest that at most, 13 percent of those diagnosed with breast cancer have been helped. That means the other 87 percent have not been helped," Dr. Gilbert Welch of Dartmouth College, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
"That is important when we keep hearing these stories from breast cancer survivors," he said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...e=ushealth1100