A large study shows that three-fourths of deaths caused due to breast cancer are among women who do not undergo regular screening mammograms.

The research examined 6,997 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer in Massachusetts between 1990 and 1999.

The surveys showed that 80% had regular mammograms, defined as at least two mammograms every two years.

It was seen that there were 461 deaths from breast cancer over the next 13 years. Out of these 75% were those who did not receive regular mammograms.

The results were later extrapolated to the 192,000 women who will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the U. S. in 2009.

Study head Blake Cady, MD, emeritus professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School says that 15% of these women will die over the next 13 years. However their mammogram history suggests that only 5% will die till 2022.

A news conference held with the American Society of Clinical Oncology in advance of the 2009 Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco where the findings of the study were released.