The New Mammogram Guidelines Proposed by the U.S.Task Force Are Horrible!!!

The American Cancer Society recommends the following (for women of average risk for breast cancer):

*Yearly mammograms starting at age 40 and continuing as long as a woman is in good health.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has now decided that women should not begin having mammograms until the age of 50, if they are at an average risk, and that it should be every 2 years. They also feel that self breast exams have no benefit and recommend that doctors stop teaching this technique to patients.

This task force has no authority to enforce these recommendations, but many doctors look to them for reviews on the effectiveness of screening tests and preventive care.

The American Cancer Society says that the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer in their 40s account for 17% of all breast cancer deaths. There is an estimate that this number will go up by as much as 3%, to a total of 20% of all breast cancer deaths. Think of the number of women that would be saved by early detection by beginning mammograms at the ACS recommended age of 40 and not 50 like the Task Force recommends.

Starting mammograms at a later age will result in the finding of cancers that are in later stages, decreasing the survival rate.

Right now as it stands with the ACS guidelines, an estimated 40,170 women will die in 2009 from breast cancer. A whooping estimated 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 62,280 cases of non-invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2009.

Does the Task Force really feel that these horrendous numbers going up is okay???

This makes me very sad.