"We found that cancer physicians have an important role in educating these young patients about their heightened risk for breast cancer and about the potential importance of screening for the disease," says the study's lead author, Lisa Diller, M.D.

The current study, which began in 1995, involved 90 women who had been treated at least eight years earlier with chest radiation. Participants were asked for their perceived risk for breast cancer and whether they had recently received breast cancer screening. The researchers gave the women written recommendations for breast self-exams and mammography and tracked participants' health annually thereafter through medical records and questionnaires.

The results suggest that many patients either do not receive or do not act on the information that they have an increased breast cancer risk and can benefit greatly from screening programs. Forty percent of the participants considered their risk for breast cancer to be equal to or lower than that of other women their age. Less than half (47 percent) reported receiving a mammogram in the previous two years. Of those women who had received information on risk, those who obtained it from oncologists were more likely to understand their risk than women who got information from other sources.

Another aim of the study was to determine whether mammography is a useful way to detect breast tumors in this group of survivors. All signs point to a positive answer. During the four years of study follow-up, 10 women developed breast tumors, all of which were detectable by mammography.

"It's important that caregivers not only be aware of the increased breast cancer risk faced by these young patients, but that they communicate this knowledge to patients, and communicate as well that mammography might be an important intervention that would catch the disease early," says Diller.