New U.S. guidelines: routine mammograms start at 50:
Sweeping new U.S. breast cancer guidelines released on Monday recommend against routine mammograms for women in their 40s, but several groups immediately rebelled against the recommendations.
The new guidelines by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel of independent experts, would sharply curtail the number of breast mammograms done in the United States, sparing women the worry of false alarms and the cost and trouble of extra tests.
The guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are based largely on computer projections from six independent research groups in the United States and Europe.
They predicted that screening women 50 to 69 every other year will catch nearly as many breast cancers — 81 percent — while producing half as many false positive results.
“Although the USPSTF recognizes that the benefit of screening seems equivalent for women aged 40 to 49 years and 50 to 59 years, the incidence of breast cancer and the consequences differ,” the task force, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, wrote.
The group’s last recommendations in 2002 called for routine mammograms every one to two years for all women older than 40.
Now, they recommend no routine screening for women in their 40s, and instead suggest these women decide for themselves when to start after weighing the risks and benefits.
