New advice for women from a government task force conflicts with the American Cancer Society long-standing recommendation of annual mammographies starting at 40. The new guidelines were issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which influences coverage of screening tests by Medicare and many insurance companies.
Additionally, the task force said breast self-exams do no good and women shouldn't be taught to do them. For nearly two decades, the America Cancer Society has been recommending regular mammograms beginning at 40.
The new guidelines say:
- Most women in their 40s should not routinely get mammograms.
- Women 50 to 74 should get a mammogram every other year until they turn 75, after which the risks and benefits are unknown. (The task force's previous guidelines had no upper limit and called for exams every year or two.)
- The value of breast exams by doctors is unknown. And breast self-exams are of no value.
The statement about self-exams would suspect. In fact, many, many women have discovered their own breast cancer through such exams. However, even the American Cancer Society has backed off breast self-exams of late.
In terms of the mammograms, the task force said that getting screened for breast cancer so early and so often causes too many false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving odds of survival.
At the same time, the group emphasized that this is for the general population as a whole. It does not apply to those who would be at higher risk due to a family history of breast cancer.
The task force advice on mammograms is based on its conclusion that screening 1,300 women in their 50s to save one life is worth it, but that screening 1,900 women in their 40s to save a life is not, wrote the ACS' chief medical officer, Dr. Otis Brawley.
That stance "is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them," he said. That's an extremely contentious stance.
Expect this new advice to be hotly debated for some time; current responses from several groups indicate that, at least for now, their recommendations on mammograms will not change.
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