By Leslie Ridgeway
If you're thinking about canceling your mammogram after reading about guidelines recently announced by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, USC breast cancer experts urge you to keep the appointment.
The guidelines, which state that most women under age 50 do not need routine mammograms, have left many women puzzled about what they should do to prevent breast cancer. If a woman doesn't have a family history of breast cancer, should she stop scheduling an annual mammogram between ages 40-49? Should she only have one every two years, after age 50?
No, said Stephen Sener, chief, division of surgical oncology at the Keck School of Medicine. Sener points to mammography's ability to find cancers when they're smaller and more manageable—and survivable.
"Size matters," he said. "A person who has a smaller cancer detected has a better chance of survival. That's not debatable."
With breast cancer death rates dropping 30 percent since 1990, the new guidelines could result in fewer women being screened and a reversal of a positive trend.
"We will continue to recommend that women have an annual mammogram after age 40,"said Linda Hovanessian Larsen, director of women's imaging, Department of Radiology. "Seventy-five percent of breast cancers are found in women with no family history. The guidelines are a disservice to women."
Christy Russell, co-director of the Lee Breast Center at USC Norris Cancer Hospital and member of the American Cancer Society's Board of Directors, said the guidelines come at a critical moment in health care reform and legislation, when decisions are being made about which tests and procedures should be covered by health insurance.
"I'm all for health care legislation and cost cutting, but to me, this is the wrong subject," she said. "To do this when everyone agrees that there is a reduction in deaths is disturbing."
Russell noted that health care legislation currently under consideration by Congress could place screening tests and therapies on an "A-B-C-D-F" grading system, with tests and therapies rated "A" or "B" getting the nod for payment. "This recommendation specifically states that a mammogram for women ages 40-49 would get a 'C' grade," she said. She added that the American Cancer Society hopes the task force will change its conclusions.
For more about breast cancer and mammography, visit the USC Norris Cancer Hospital Web site at http://www.uscnorriscancerhospital.org.