BOISE -- A federal task force came out with new recommendations Monday regarding breast cancer screenings. Their guidelines differ from what women have long been told.
It was previously recommended women start annual mammograms at age 40. Now the government says those women shouldn’t get a mammogram unless they’re at high risk. Instead, women should start mammograms when they turn 50 and get them every other year. Researchers rewriting the guidelines say any benefit from an early mammogram is outweighed by the unnecessary panic it can cause.
"That is, the likelihood of having a false positive test with all the attendant anxiety, the additional imaging tests, perhaps
even leading to biopsy that may have been unnecessary," Dr. Diana Petitti of the Preventive Services Task Force said.
The task force says women in their 40s typically have denser breasts, so false positives are more likely to appear in their mammograms. Researchers on the task force also found that self-breast exams don't reduce breast cancer death rates.
However, not everyone in the medical field agrees with the new guidelines. One of the major groups in disagreement is the American Cancer Society. Local health professionals and survivors KTVB talked to, also question the recommendations.
They would rather women get screened and be anxious about the results than wait and find out when it's too late. Registered nurse Jill Winschell believes early detection is critical.
"Bottom line- we will catch cancers at a later stage and the survival will be poor," said Winschell.
She says tumors double in size every six months and if a woman waits to be screened, the cancer could spread and be harder to remove. Winschell says if done early, treatment is more comfortable for the patient.
"You have more options for surgical treatment and you have more options for chemotherapy and treatment. You're less likely to have to have chemotherapy," she said.
Cheryl Imlach of Boise says she's proof early detection saves lives. The 41-year-old was healthy and did not consider herself at risk. She found her own breast cancer by doing a self exam. She says if she had followed the recommendations and waited until she was 50, she probably would not be alive. Imlach worries the new breast cancer screening recommendations will undo public awareness. She hopes women will continue to think the same way as before: monthly breast self-exams and mammograms every year.
“You're your own advocate for your own healthcare,” said Imlach. "Women have a knack and an intuition of knowing when something is not right with their body," said Imlach.
Winschell says Idaho has a low rate of mammography screenings. She says contributing factors are women with no education, women who are low-income and the fact that much of Idaho is rural. For this reason, she says self-breast exams are a must.
Last year in Idaho, 180 people died of breast cancer. The disease is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in the state behind lung and colorectal cancers.
