New Revisions To Breast Cancer Guidelines
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The American Cancer Society has now changed their stance to closely mimic the advice of the U.S. Preventive Services task forces which says women should start mammograms later in their life and get fewer of them. On Tuesday new guidelines emerged saying that the cancer society recommends that most women should begin annual screening for breast cancer at age 45 instead of 40, and switch to every other year at 55.
On the other hand the task force advises screening every other year starting at age 50. It’s not a one-size-fits-all recommendation since both groups say women’s preferences for when to be scanned should be considered.
The advice pertains to women at average risk for breast cancer. However doctors generally recommend more intensive screening for higher-risk women, including those with specific genetic mutations. Dr. Richard Wender, the cancer society’s cancer control chief said “The most important message of all is that a mammogram is the most effective thing that a woman can do to reduce her chance of dying from breast cancer. It’s not that mammograms are ineffective in younger women.”
At age 40, breast cancer is uncommon and false alarms are more likely which is why Wender said “Therefore, you’d have to do a lot more mammograms to prevent one death,” compared to older women. Concern about false alarms contributed to the cancer society’s new guidance since they lead to worry and more testing.
Those false alarms mean an initial result was suspicious but that cancer was ruled out by additional scans and sometimes biopsies.The guidelines were developed by experts who reviewed dozens of studies including research published since 1997, which is the year the cancer group recommended yearly mammograms starting at age 40, and since 2003, when it stopped recommending monthly breast self-exams.
The update recommends that women continue getting screened as long as they are in good health and have a life expectancy of at least 10 years however the old guidelines did not include an age limit. The cancer group also retracted a recommendation for routine physical breast exams by doctors, claiming there’s no evidence that these save lives.
The society’s updated guidelines say switching to every other year for mammograms at age 55 makes sense because tumors in women after menopause tend to grow more slowly. Also Dr. Kevin Oeffinger, chairman of the society’s breast cancer guideline panel and director of the cancer survivorship center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York claims older women’s breasts are usually less dense so cancer is more visible on mammograms.
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