Breast cancer is scary. There is no getting around the fact that no one wants to find they might need surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. However, it is commonly accepted that it is necessary to screen for this cancer.

Sure touch, Photo from: medicletactile.com

Recently, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has reevaluated its stance on what age it is necessary to have a mammography, and with what frequency. The USPSTF is a panel of doctors that is government funded.

According to their new conclusions, it is not necessary for most women below the age of 50 to get a mammogram, and once a woman is in her 50s she should only be screened biannually. After the age of 75, the risks of breast cancer are uncertain, so no assessments have been made for this age group. Also, they have deemed self breast examinations to be unhelpful and therefore not worth teaching.

However, the American Cancer Society does not accept these new standards and still recommend women to start getting mammograms annually by the age of 40. Their statement in response to the new guidelines set by the USPSTF states that the ACS stands behind their own standards because they have data that the USPSTF did not consider during their review.

Breast cancer survivors are among the most upset by the USPSTF’s new guidelines, especially those who were diagnosed below the age of 50.

“It scares me … for other women who have not yet been diagnosed,” said breast cancer survivor Meri Kennedy. “I was found to have breast cancer at the age of 44 and with no family history of breast cancer. Under this panel’s guidelines, I could be dead if I waited until I was 50 years of age. There is no age discrimination when it comes to breast cancer and remember, men get breast cancer as well.”

Woman having a mammorgram Photos from:http://www.wusa9.com

From the way it looks, this government-funded panel is simply looking for ways to cut costs in today’s troubled economy. The problem is, what about the cost of lives? People in their 40s might have children that are far too young to lose a parent, be it their mother or their father. It won’t help the economy much if parents are dying and decreased family income turns into more welfare cases.

“It is angering a lot of people and upsetting many people. If there is an upside, it brings the breast cancer issue to the forefront. As they say, any news, good or bad, is good news. By getting people upset by these new guidelines, it may actually send more women for mammograms for routine screening,” said Kennedy.

A particularly confusing part of the USPSTF’s statement was that self examinations should not be taught. It seems ridiculous to say that they are not useful if even a few cases of breast cancer have been found because of them. As a woman, I know that my doctor supports self breast examinations. After all, this method helped her determine that my own lumps were not breast cancer, but fibrocystic breast disease. The examination did not lead to an unneeded procedure, but it did lead me to a better understanding of the female body. Perhaps the importance of these examinations was overlooked because of the types of doctors that were on the USPSTF’s panel.

“I find it even more upsetting that as far as I could tell from the report, there were NO oncologists on the panel,” Kennedy added. “They are doing this as a cost-cutting measure … of course it is always good to cut government spending, but not at the cost of lives! If this is a sign of what universal health care is all about … I am against it!”

For more on the issue of the USPSTF decisions, check out this video from CNN.

Tags: American Cancer Society, Breast Cancer, Radford University, The United States Preventative Services Task Force, Whim

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Vent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.