American Cancer Society Changes Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines
The American Cancer Society (ACS) changed its recommendations for when women should get screened for cancer and published[1] its recommendations online in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The new recommendations were guided by a systematic review of breast cancer studies, and the recommendations are sure to confuse and possibly anger many women. The American Cancer Society does not recommend mammograms for average-risk women of any age.
Though mammograms can save lives, they also can cause cause. Though the radiation mammograms emit are considered to be low, the radiation still damages tissue and can lead to mutations that develop into cancer. The more mammograms a woman does increases her risk of cancer.
Mammograms also compress the breast to be able to take more accurate pictures, which can dislodge tumor cells and allow them to travel to and infect other parts of the body.
Studies[2] have shown breast cancer sometimes spontaneously regressive and goes away on their own. There is also the risk of false-positives that have caused some women to undergo harmful, chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery when the treatments weren’t necessary.
The goal of the recommendations was to reduce unnecessary risk so ACS strongly recommends women of average-risk should be screened starting at 45 instead of at 40. The ACS said women in the low 40’s should be able to get a mammogram if they want to, but the risks should be clearly explained.
The ACS also recommended women between the ages of 45 and 54 get screened annually, and women 55 and older shoulder get screened every two years.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends women get mammograms starting at 40-years-old, while the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening at 50 years old.
Ultimately it is up to the insurance companies to decide when they will cover the screenings and typically they have paid for mammograms starting at 40 even though the government’s task for force recommended mammograms starting at 50.
