New Mammogram Guidelines for 40-Somethings

April 2, 2007 — -- A new report suggests the risks of breast cancer screening could outweigh the benefits for women under 50, calling into question decades-old guidelines that women begin having regular mammograms at age 40.

The new American College of Physicians study recommends that women in their 40s talk to their doctors about whether to test, since younger women with no family history of breast cancer tend to be at low risk of developing the disease.

The report is sure to raise questions for middle-aged women and has already prompted debate among breast cancer specialists, many of whom argue the new guidelines will deter patients who should be getting exams from having them.

Already, less than 50 percent of women follow the current American Cancer Society guidelines recommending regular screening starting at 40.

"The new guidelines do not do a good job of discussing the balance between risk and benefits," said Dr. Monica Morrow, chairman of the department of surgical oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

While the guidelines do have scientific merit, they are "extremely impractical" because they don't offer clear guidance for doctors or women in their forties, she said.

The distinction between what is practical and what is most medically valuable has been at the heart of a long-standing debate over whether women under 50 benefit from screening. The new report suggests women may be harmed by radiation from testing, particularly the earlier and more frequently they are screened. The authors do point out that has been no definitive study linking small doses of radiation from mammograms to illness.

A clearer risk comes from getting a false positive -- a result that wrongly shows cancer in a perfectly healthy patient. It is estimated that false positives occur in about 2 to 4 percent of all mammograms. The results are traumatic for women and their families, and can lead to additional, unnecessary tests and even unnecessary therapies.

The more mammograms a woman has, the greater chance she has of getting a false positive.