Dec 2, 2009 4:23 pm US/Central
Mammogram Experts Slam New Government Guidelines
Doctors Say Women Should Continue Getting Annual Screenings At Age 40
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The top doctors in the country who read mammograms were in Chicago on Wednesday and they had advice for women.
They said don't follow those new government guidelines about mammograms; and that's not all. As CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports, they questioned the credentials of the panel that came up with the recommendations.
"There's no real expert – in breast cancer screening or breast cancer diagnosis or treatment – on the panel and we find that to be somewhat shocking," said Dr. W. Phil Evans, president of the Society of Breast Imaging and director of the Center for Breast Care at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Evans was among the experts who spoke at the Radiological Society of North America about the new mammography guidelines.
Those guidelines came from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of government doctors and scientists. They recommended women between the ages of 50 and 74 get mammograms every two years.
"What's the net affect? Screening would begin too late and would be too little. We would save money, but we would lose lives," said Dr. Stephen Feig, president-elect of the American Society of Breast Imaging and a professor of radiology at the University of California - Irvine School of Medicine.
"It's very hard for me to believe that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force actually thought about the implications of their new guidelines. Just to reiterate, for women 40 to 49, no clinical breast examination, no self-examination and no routine mammography," said Dr. Daniel Kopans, Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Senior Radiologist in the Breast Imaging Division at Massachusetts General Hospsital.
All the experts agreed the new guidelines created a lot of confusion for women.
"The American Cancer Society guidelines, which say that women of average risk should begin screening mammography at age 40, and do that yearly, is what we recommend and think that is the right thing for women to do and for their physicians to recommend that they do," said Evans.
"The American Cancer Society guidelines has been shown to save lives. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines, by their own admission, will cause women to die unnecessarily," said Kopans.
The radiologists on the panel acknowledged mammography is a key part of their income, but said that had nothing to do with their outspoken stance on this issue.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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