A newly revised guideline was released by the American Cancer Society last Tuesday, Oct. 20. With the purpose of making clarifications, the protocol caused confusion instead as it concludes that few screenings is better.
The guideline issued now states that women instead of 40 should begin mammogram at age 45 and should be done yearly instead of every two years until they reach age 55. Furthermore, it is now allowable to miss or skip manual routine check ups by healthcare providers.
It is argued, however, that women below 45 years have a high possibility of false positive results as they have more substantial breasts and it is more difficult to detect tumours. "False positives are a huge deal... These women are so frightened and inconvenienced they swear off mammography," society's chief medical officer Dr. Otis Brawley said.
Adding to the disorganization is the varied recommendations of medical groups. For instance, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggests starting at 40, the American Cancer Society at 45, and the US Preventive Services Task Force at 50.
With all these propositions at hand, the medicine and epidemiology professor of the University of Washington Dr. Joann Elmore said that a lot of women are left clueless on what to do. "I think that the practical effect might be confusion... by the variability of these back-and-forth guidelines," she said.
Ruth Etzioni, a Biostatistician from Fred Hutch who aid in drafting the guideline, revealed that more than a two-year research has been conducted to come up with the latest protocol.
In the study, it was found that the prevalence of breast cancer-related deaths were reduced through regular screening between ages 40 and 69 years. The protocol is intended to proportionate the pros and cons of mammogram, subsuming other problems such as inaccurate diagnosis and imprecise treatment. Furthermore, it is a fusion of what is known and what is not.
In the end, "it is important to remember and emphasize with average-risk women older than 40 years that there is no single right answer to the question: 'Should I have a mammogram?', " Harvard Medical School's Dr. Nancy Keating and Bigham and Women's Hospital's Dr. Lydia Pace said.
