Millions of women were shocked and confused by new mammogram guidelines. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggested that routine mammograms should begin when a woman is 50 rather than 40. The physicians added even more controversy to the equation by recommending that the time between mammograms be stretched to two years. The independent experts added even more fuel to the fire when they said that the evidence for screening women older than 74 is inadequate.
These new guidelines triggered a firestorm of outrage from some quarters. The American Cancer Society and the American College of Radiology objected to them. Some women who have had breast cancers detected through mammograms were distressed at the idea of forgoing them. Most women have been told that any sign of cancer requires surgery or other aggressive treatment. But there is growing awareness that some breast tumors do not warrant heroic measures because they don’t threaten the woman’s life. Just as with prostate cancer, some breast cancers just sit there so women die with them but not as a result of them. Our current screening methods do not allow doctors to determine which is which.
