As a woman with a history of cancer in my family, new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel of independent experts on mammogram frequency makes me very nervous.
USPSTF offered up new guidelines yesterday, recommending women in their 40s NOT get routine annual mammograms. Rather, the panel advises, women should only get a mammogram every other year, beginning at age 50. Further, USPSTF concludes there’s no evidence that self-exams or breast exams by physicians is helpful either. The new guidelines, the independent experts say, will reduce the number of false alarms and extra testing that isn’t needed.
According to Reuters, USPSTF believes the scaled back screening schedule will catch nearly as many breast cancers, but produce fewer false positives. Now, I’m no doctor – but if no one is examining women at all for two years, how can we catch just as many cancers? And, how could we catch them early enough to be
Turns out, some doctors agree with me – and raise some questions about the panel’s recommendations.
First, the American Cancer Society will disregard the USPSTF guidelines. And Dr. Carol Lee, chair of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission, goes even further, saying, ““These unfounded USPSTF recommendations ignore the valid scientific data and place a great many women at risk of dying unnecessarily from a disease that we have made significant headway against over the past 20 years. Mammography is not a perfect test, but it has unquestionably been shown to save lives -- including in women aged 40-49. These new recommendations seem to reflect a conscious decision to ration care. If Medicare and private insurers adopt these incredibly flawed USPSTF recommendations as a rationale for refusing women coverage of these life-saving exams, it could have deadly effects for American women.”
So, if your health plan covers age-appropriate mammography at 100%, and/or your wellness program offers your female employees a cash incentive or premium discount to get the screenings within the current age recommendations, I salute you and say keep up the good work.
