New Mammogram Recommendations Cause Controversy

Changes in when to start and how often women should be screened

By DIANA GONZALEZ

Updated 9:10 AM EDT, Tue, Nov 17, 2009

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A group of health experts just issued controversial new recommendations -- that are drastically different from what the American Cancer Society recommends for women.

According to those recommendations, issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, screening mammography should not be done routinely for all women 40 to 49 and women 50 to 74 should have mammography every two years.

Needless to say, the recommendations aren't sitting well with South Florida physicians.

“It seems like a step backward for women in the U.S.," said Dr. Mary Hayes, director of breast imaging for Memorial Health Care System. "It seems we would be missing aggressive cancers and doing harm and we would reverse the strides we've made in terms of improving the lives of women.”

While the task force found that mammography screening does reduce a woman's chance of dying from breast cancer, the group also pointed out so-called "screening harms," which include false positive mammograms and unnecessary biopsies, especially in women under 50.

Dr. Hayes said they're working to better assess the actual risk of breast cancer for individual women and are testing new technology to reduce the number of false alarms, like digital tomosynthesis.

For breast cancer survivors like Jean Meridionale, early detection, they feel, made the difference.

Meridionale, diagnosed with breast cancer at age 49 during her annual mammogram, felt that had she waited to be screened, it would have been a lot tougher to beat.

"It would have gone on longer and the tumor would have gotten larger in my breast," Miridionale said.

The Society of Breast Imaging warns that adopting the new guidelines would result in increased deaths from breast cancer. There is also concern that the task force recommendations could eventually trigger changes in insurance coverage for yearly breast cancer screenings.

Mammogram Changes