A long-standing debate over younger women getting annual breast cancer screening is reigniting this week, after an independent medical panel changed its recommendations.
Confusion, fear and politics are swirling around the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations. The task force now recommends shifting from annual to biennial mammograms for all women aged 50-74.
They no longer recommend annual mammograms and they don’t think women under 50 need them at all. By analyzing the available cancer data, they also found that breast self-examination didn’t reduce deaths from breast cancer.
Many groups are upset by the new recommendations and are urging women to continue annual screening like they have for years. Some are even tying this to health care reform and other politics.
Congress will hold hearings next month and even the White House felt compelled to weigh in on this issue.
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The American College of Radiology and the Society for Breast Imaging restated the recommendation for screening starting at 40 (and as needed). Published in this month’s Journal of the American College of Radiology, the guidelines include recommendations for breast cancer screening by imaging technique (mammography, MRI, and ultrasound) and by risk factor, stating that the average patient should begin annual breast cancer screening at age 40, while high-risk patients should begin by age 30 but not before age 25 (JACR, January 2010, Vol. 7:1, pp. 18-27)
My thought is that it’s not science vs policy, it’s science vs business/profit interests (original report was basically showing no clear “ROI” for screening >50).