Risks and Benefits of Cancer Screenings

The recent mammography recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, federally appointed panel of experts, were condemned by some breast cancer activists and physician groups.

Nearly all of the negative reaction has focused on the panel’s recommendation that women without risk factors undergo mammography screening beginning at age 50 instead of 40. The risks of mammograms before 50, the panel concluded—echoing previous groups that reached the same conclusion as well as large new studies—outweigh the benefits of early detection.

The task force also recommended that women between 50 and 74 without symptoms or risk factors undergo mammography every other year rather than annually and urged doctors to stop teaching patients to perform breast self-exams, because there is no evidence they are effective. Read the entire article.

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