Breast cancer screening rose after Minogue

MELBOURNE, June 5 (UPI) -- Australian researchers said young women getting breast cancer screening increased by 33 percent after singer Kylie Minogue revealed she had breast cancer.

Use of mammography and breast ultrasound procedures increased by 30 percent among women ages 25 to 44 in the six months following Minogue's breast cancer diagnosis, University of Melbourne researchers said.

When the Australian pop singer, songwriter and actress was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 there was an intense period of media coverage, particularly in Australia.

The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that in the six months following Minogue's diagnosis in April 2005: breast imaging in 25- to 34-year-old women rose by 33 percent, breast biopsies in women age 25 to 34 increased by 46 percent; breast imaging in women age 35 to 44 rose by 25 percent, and biopsies in women ages 35 to 44 increased by 37 percent.

However, the rates of operations to remove breast cancers did not change significantly, suggesting that thousands of additional imaging procedures and biopsies did not improve breast cancer detection among young women.