New breast cancer screening guidelines: Science or money?

The United States Preventive Services Task Force’s new recommendations for women receiving mammograms have turned years of medical advice on its head. Now some organizations and doctors are refuting the recommendations.

The USPSTF now suggests routine screening mammography in women ages 40-49 and in women over 75. The task force also recommends that screening between the ages of 50 and 74 be performed every two years rather than each year. The USPSTF says that a mammography is less effective at distinguishing cancers from normal breast tissue in premenopausal women, mammograms miss cancers in some younger women and raise a false alarm in others.

The new guidelines for screening mammography, clinical breast examination and breast self-examination are in conflict with the facts. One in every 14 women faces the risk of developing breast cancer. Globally, incidences of breast cancer are 25 to 30 per thousand population. The alarmed response to this report demonstrates just how invested Americans have become in the idea of early cancer detection.

A national survey of 1,136 women furthermore showed that approximately 76 percent of respondents thought the new guidelines were not driven by scientific data, but by the push among government healthcare officials to cut costs. The White House clearly backed off initial support of the new guidelines set by the task force on mammograms and the one on Pap smears for cervical cancer after they produced bitter debate that was viewed as detrimental to chances for adoption of the overall medical-reform package.