Why mammograms at 50

It is the variation in guidelines that prompted the ACP to weigh in with recommendations of its own, said Dr. Amir Qaseem, vice president of clinical policy for the ACP. By Lisa Rapaport 4 Min Read. I have women who come to me and say, "My girlfriend had breast cancer and I want a mammogram today. You haven't had a mammogram before. I think that's a reasonable thing to do. But remember breast cancer isn't catching and you can't catch it from your girlfriend, but if you don't feel safe right now and a mammogram will make you feel safer, then that's something that's okay.

But remember mammography in the 40s, you find stuff that you have to investigate that isn't necessarily cancer. I have women who come to me and say, "You know, my family we're down winders.

I really don't think I want to do any extra radiation until it's really recommended. I'm going to do your clinical breast exam even though there's no good evidence that doctors doing breast exams saves lives either, but if you feel better saving till 50, that's fine. And then I have a few patients who say, "You know, my mom had mammography all the time and she still got breast cancer and died and I'm never getting a mammogram.

But the suspicious area usually requires follow-up with more than one doctor, extra tests, and extra procedures, including a possible biopsy. There are psychological, physical, and economic costs that come with a false positive. The studies led a number of organizations to revise their breast cancer screening recommendations for women at average risk of breast cancer.

Here are the current recommendations as of August The researchers did this study to provide more information on the benefits of screening mammograms for women age 40 to 48 to help clear up the confusion about when screening mammograms should start. The women joined the study between and The women were randomly split into two breast cancer screening groups:. The researchers wanted to know if starting screening earlier would reduce the number of women who died from breast cancer.

The researchers noted that this reduction leveled out as all the women started to be screened for breast cancer. You're listening to The Scope. Kirtly Parker Jones: It seems like in the last couple of years that there are new recommendations, or new debates, about when women should get mammograms. You may have heard in the news about a recent study that suggests that pushing mammograms back to 40 would save lives. Well, we are going to talk about this in The Scope today.

What is the data? Where are we coming from? And where we're left. How do we make decisions about cancer? The authors recommend screening before