In a position paper, the National Breast Cancer Coalition argues that American women undergo too many mammograms.
In trying to deal with the toll that breast cancer continues to take in our country, the public has followed the lead of public health officials and increasingly put their faith in screening and early detection, though we have never had good evidence that this would have a significant impact. The over-emphasis on the importance of screening, despite a lack of strong evidence, has been elevated to such a degree that some even equate screening with prevention of breast cancer. The National Breast Cancer Coalition hopes that today’s release of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) revised recommendations will put the brakes on this run-away train and will put screening and its limitations into proper perspective.
The revised guidelines were issued by the USPSTF, a government-appointed, independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services. Revisions include recommending against universal screening mammography for women aged 40-49, recommending every other year screening for women 50-74, rather than annual screening and recommending against teaching breast self examination.
For over ten years, the National Breast Cancer Coalition has reviewed and analyzed each newly published article looking at the trials of mammography screening. After each analysis, NBCC has continued to take the position that mammography screening has significant limitations and should be a personal choice rather than a public health message. NBCC has also reviewed all articles and studies on breast self examination and historically informed the public that there was no evidence that monthly breast self examination saved lives. When the evidence from well designed prospective randomized trials in addition to that of other studies showed harm and no benefit from this practice, NBCC changed its message accordingly. We continue to affirm those positions and are gratified that the US Preventive Services Task Force has changed their recommendations to be more in line with the existing evidence. Read more about NBCC’s unwavering positions on mammography and breast self examination.
The issues are not simple, but we believe women can comprehend the complexities of breast cancer and screening for the disease. Women deserve to know the facts and have the right to make informed decisions regarding their health care.
