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Nov 19, 2009 6:02 pm US/Eastern
New Mammogram Guidelines Generating Confusion
Government Health Agency Contradicts American Cancer Society's Long-Held Recommendation For Testing In 40s; Agency Says Get Tested In 50s
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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A government task force said Monday that most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50. (File)
CBS
Some of the biggest breast cancer champions have a new cause to fight. Many are focusing their efforts on debunking new recommendation from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force. The independent panel of experts announced this week that women should wait until the age of 50 to get a mammogram and then have one every two years. That's a change from the old recommendation that said women should begin getting screened for breast cancer at the age of 40.
"I don't understand how anybody could possibly tell a woman to wait till they're 50 when most cancers are detected in their early 40's," said Monica Gorban, a breast cancer survivor. "Doesn't make any sense to me, it really doesn't."
Gorban's husband found the lump when she was 42. At the time she had already been screened twice for breast cancer. She rushed to the doctor who was able to quickly pull her old mammograms.
"Because I had two mammograms that you could compare to, he recognized that this was something new and we were able to address it immediately," she said. "So therefore I only required a lumpectomy and radiation. With the new scheduling of not having it until 50, I wouldn't be here... it's very simple."
Her story is very similar to that of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The congressional leader found out she had breast cancer at the age of 41.
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's Suggestions
- American Cancer Society: Performing Breast Self-Exam
- National Cancer Institute Explains A Mammography
- Federal Government Web Site On Women's Health
"I had no risk factors," recalled Wasserman Schultz. "If these recommendations were in place as policy, I would never had gone and got a mammogram and wouldn't had done breast self exam and I'm not sure that I would be having this interview with you today now two years later. The recommendations are troubling. They're patronizing to suggest that women can't handle more information and that health care providers can't discern with that information what recommendations they should make to their patients. We need to make sure that while we're trying to reform the health care system to focus on prevention eliminating guidance that women should get preventative screenings for breast cancer is backwards. It turns the system upside down and it makes no sense."
Wasserman Schultz said she spoke to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. She said Sebelius said the task force's recommendations will not change the government's guidelines for woman. Sebelius still recommends women start getting mammograms at age 40.
"We know women will be diagnosed at a later stage of breast cancer if they're waiting all the way until they're 50," said Wasserman Schultz. "You have 28,000 women 45 and under that are diagnosed in this country every year with breast cancer and if we don't get them screened until they're 50 we know that they're very likely to have breast cancer diagnosed later."
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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