DONATE TO THE NATIONAL BREAST CANCER FOUNDATIONMantra Bros Executive Producer Big Daddy G. along with Partner Wicho Phillips presented Gloria Gaynor, Sister Sledge, and Anita Ward at a benefit concert in Panama City Panama recently. The event raised 2.5 Million Dollars for AIDS and Breast Cancer prevention, and support. Pictured from left to right in photos: Wicho Phillips, Gloria Gaynor, Big Daddy G., Anita Ward, and Sister Sledge
Mammogram Guidelines
Information About USPSTF's New Mammogram Recommendations
How Do New Recommendations for Breast Cancer Screening Affect You?
New recommendations have been released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government-appointed, independent panel of medical professionals whose recommendations inform decisions by health professionals and insurers. We hope to provide information so that you can make informed decisions about your own health care.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released a recommendation that all American women without a family history of breast cancer receive a mammogram every two years between the ages of 50 and 74. The report does not recommend routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years.
Mayo Clinic and the American Cancer Society continue to recommend screenings for women 40 years of age and older. "Mayo Clinic will continue to evaluate new data on mammography and breast cancer detection as information is made available. But at this time...Mayo Clinic physicians feel it is in the best interests of their patients to offer routine screening mammography."
The Breast Cancer Site's Statement:
The Breast Cancer Site, along with the National Cancer Institute, The American Cancer Society, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, encourages all women to discuss the risks and benefits of getting a mammogram with their doctors. No one should make this decision for a woman; it should always be her choice when to start screening for breast cancer. Unfortunately, economic barriers too often prevent women who need mammograms from getting them. That is why The Breast Cancer Site supports the National Breast Cancer Foundation's program to provide free mammograms for low-income, uninsured, and working-poor women.
The most recent and comprehensive research on breast cancer detection clearly indicates that regular mammogram screening saves lives, reducing the rate of death from breast cancer by an average of fifteen percent*. The American Cancer Society and Mayo Clinic recommend that all American women begin scheduling routine mammograms starting at age forty. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommends women without a family history of the disease get a mammogram every two years from ages fifty to seventy-four. Although mammograms are most effective for women over fifty and those with a family history of the disease, they can also detect cancers in younger women without family history. Mammography remains the best tool to detect breast cancer before it spreads.
*U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, November 2009
This is a summary of the USPSTF's recommendations and rationale, and a link to the full report.
Importance Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States. Widespread use of screening, along with treatment advances in recent years, have been credited with significant reductions in breast cancer mortality.
Detection Mammography, as well as physical examination of the breasts (CBE and BSE), can detect presymptomatic breast cancer. Because of its demonstrated effectiveness in randomized, controlled trials of screening, film mammography is the standard for detecting breast cancer; in 2002, the USPSTF found convincing evidence of its adequate sensitivity and specificity.
Benefits of Detection and Early Intervention There is convincing evidence that screening with film mammography reduces breast cancer mortality, with a greater absolute reduction for women aged 50 to 74 years than for women aged 40 to 49 years. The strongest evidence for the greatest benefit is among women aged 60 to 69 years.
Among women 75 years or older, evidence of benefits of mammography is lacking.
Harms of Detection and Early Intervention The harms resulting from screening for breast cancer include psychological harms, unnecessary imaging tests and biopsies in women without cancer, and inconvenience due to false-positive screening results. Furthermore, one must also consider the harms associated with treatment of cancer that would not become clinically apparent during a woman's lifetime (overdiagnosis), as well as the harms of unnecessary earlier treatment of breast cancer that would have become clinically apparent but would not have shortened a woman's life. Radiation exposure (from radiologic tests), although a minor concern, is also a consideration.
Adequate evidence suggests that the overall harms associated with mammography are moderate for every age group considered, although the main components of the harms shift over time. Although false-positive test results, overdiagnosis, and unnecessary earlier treatment are problems for all age groups, false-positive results are more common for women aged 40 to 49 years, whereas overdiagnosis is a greater concern for women in the older age groups.
The USPSTF has reached the following conclusions: For biennial screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years, there is moderate certainty that the net benefit is small. 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 USPSTF emphasizes the adverse consequences for most women — who will not develop breast cancer — and therefore use the number needed to screen to save 1 life as its metric. By this metric, the USPSTF concludes that there is moderate evidence that the net benefit is small for women aged 40 to 49 years.
For biennial screening mammography in women aged 50 to 74 years, there is moderate certainty that the net benefit is moderate.
For screening mammography in women 75 years or older, evidence is lacking and the balance of benefits and harms cannot be determined.
Read the full USPSTF report here.