Women confused with new breast cancer screening guidelines

On Monday, a government appointed group known as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released their new guidelines for mammograms. The task force now suggests women younger than the age of 50 do not need mammograms. It is important to note the revised recommendation pertain to women at average risk of getting breast cancer and not to women who are at high risk.

For several years, a number of doctors have questioned the efficacy of regular screening for breast and prostate cancers. The recent JAMA report showed that improvements in screening mammography produced a 40 percent increase in diagnosis and a corresponding decline in late-stage breast cancer was expected. However, only a 10 percent decline in late-stage breast cancer.

Without question many women in their 40s are feeling confused by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s newest recommendation against getting regular screening mammograms. Almost 195,000 American women will develop breast cancer this year, and approximately 40,000 will die. Yet the business of offering mammograms has been in steady decline in recent years as a large number of clinics have opted out of the screening business because of low insurance reimbursements. Medicare generally pays around $94 for a mammogram, and private insurers might pay an additional 20 percent or more.

When looking purely at  statistics there is no doubt the task force’s new recommendations are wrong. Current statistics say one in eight women will have breast cancer, and one in 35 will die from it. Although some doctors say they will disregard the new guidelines, the real danger here is that insurance companies will use these recommendations as an excuse to stop paying for mammograms.

One Response to “Women confused with new breast cancer screening guidelines”

1. brenda says:

   ndAmerica/Chicagop30America/Chicago11bAmerica/ChicagoSun, 22 Nov 2009 12:50:33 -0600 1, 2008 at 12:50 pm

   To say that women are “confused” is ridiculous and patronizing. I, as a woman, am not confused over the new recommendations. I can’t imagine that most women are “confused” about these guidelines. We can read, think and make decisions on our own. Given the facts about the risk and benefits of a mammogram in our 40’s I think we can make up our own minds about whether we can handle the “anxiety” of a false positive and whether we want to leave a slow growing cancer (”in situ”) sitting in our breasts because it may never affect us. I certainly don’t want a task force deciding this for me. It seems to me that this is a recommendation for “herd” medicine and cost containment and not about individual health and benifits.