No more self-breast exams - no mammogram until age 50 - new government guidelines?

Has rationing of health care already begun? New guidelines were released on Monday, November 16, 2009, that women wait until they are at least 50 years old before getting a routine mammogram. Women from here in Atlanta to Alaska could be at serious risk.  There is hardly a family in America that has not been affected by breast cancer in some way.

Mammograms recommended by the American Cancer Society and other organizations dealing with the reality of breast cancer has recommended in the past that a woman get her first mammogram at age 35-40 as a baseline so as to compare future changes in future breast exams. Without the baseline, it is harder to detect changes in the breast tissue.

Who? Just who is the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, anyway?

http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfab.htm
 
Their premise is to sharply curtail the number of breast mammograms done in the United States stating that this would spare women the worry of false alarms and the cost and trouble of extra tests. Their reasoning is not flying with women who have had breast cancer discovered in their early forties and sometimes even younger solely by mammograms; and it does not fly with the sound medical advice of the American Cancer Society and other that groups have argued that this change could mean that more women will die of breast cancer. There are 500,000 women who die of breast cancer every year; and the hope for a cure is early detection. What is a false alarm or a little inconvenience when it comes from dying from this devastating disease which could be cured in early stages?

They say their research is based largely on computer projections from six independent groups in the United States and Europe. Computers do not get breast cancer, suffer, and die way too young leaving devastated families behind.

They suggest that screening women 50 to 59 will catch NEARLY as many breast cancers – 81% percent while producing half as many false positives. That leaves 19% who will have cancers that go undetected and possibly too late for a cure. That means that 19 out of every 100 women could die unnecessarily from undetected early cancer.

The group's last recommendations in 2002 called for routine mammograms every one to two years for all women older than 40.

Now, they recommend no routine screening for women in their 40s, and instead suggest these women decide for themselves when to start after weighing the risks and benefits.

"This is not a recommendation against mammography for women in their 40s," said Dr. Diana Petitti, professor of biomedical informatics at Arizona State University in Phoenix, who spoke on behalf of the task force.

They are also indicating that mammograms for women over 74 do not benefit from the test because at that age, the cancers detected may never kill them. Cancer can kill in months; and many women are living today well into their 90’s. They do not apparently take into the account of human suffering; but just economic reasoning.

They are also saying that there is not enough evidence to prove that women benefit from self or physician exams. So let us be clear here what they are recommending. No mammograms until past the age of 40 – no self-exams – no physician exams and no mammograms for women over 74.
The source for the following quotes is from article published from Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5AF5BH20091117
 
Dr. Daniel Kopans, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, said the new guidelines "are scientifically unjustified and will condemn women ages 40 to 49 to unnecessary deaths from breast cancer."

"If you look at their guidelines, they are saying, 'Don't examine yourself, don't let anyone else examine you, and don't get a mammogram.' Where does that leave you? It leaves you waiting to have a big cancer that you can't ignore any more," Kopans said in a telephone interview.

The American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said they will not be changing their guidelines.

The American Cancer Society will continue to recommend that women of average risk of breast cancer start screening at age 40 and get screened every year," Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the group's deputy chief medical officer, said in a telephone interview.

Dr. Carol Lee, chair of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission, said the recommendations "ignore the valid scientific data and place a great many women at risk of dying unnecessarily."

Lee and Lichtenfeld said they fear insurers -- both private and public -- will use them to pare back health costs.

"These new recommendations seem to reflect a conscious decision to ration care," Lee said, although Petitti said cost was not a factor in their decision-making.

The National Cancer Institute, which funded the modeling study, said women of average risk need to discuss the risks and benefits of mammograms with their doctors.

"NCI has had screening mammography recommendations for many years, and we need to evaluate them in light of the Task Force's recommendations -- for all women, not only for those of average risk. It's too early for us to make any decisions right now," the federal agency said in a statement.”
These guidelines fly in the face of all the years of research and results of everything women have been told for years – with self-exams, physician exams, and the use of mammograms and now even ultra-sound which can detect cancer early and with treatment can bring about a complete cure. This guideline could result in less cancers detected and less long term expense for treatment. Is this about money?

Personal testimony: In 2002, I was diagnosed with DCIS – Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. I did not have a lump or anything you could feel. It appeared on the mammogram as multiple dots in several places throughout the left breast on a routine mammogram.

A biopsy revealed cancerous cells and a mastectomy was recommended. The lab report after the surgery revealed stage 2 cancer. I would not have known about this without the mammogram and may very well not be alive today. But catching it so early when the dots were about the size of a pin point, I did not have to have chemo or radiation. Give me ten false positives any day as long as they detect the one positive one - in time. Breast cancer has been detected in young girls as young as 13. To say that it is safe for women to wait until 50 to start having routine mammograms is insane.

This new announcement is far from becoming law; but many insurance companies could possibly use this as a “cut cost” measure and not fund these life saving tests; which could result in a much higher death rate among women of all ages.

With this monster sized health care bill before the Senate at this very moment, it is strange that Pelosi, Reid, and Obama are still pushing for tax funded abortions; while this may be of interest to them to begin rationing health care to women at an even younger age. There are other reports that suggest that abortions can actually contribute to breast cancer later in life.

http://www.abortionfacts.com/online_books/love_them_both/why_cant_we_love_them_both_23.asp#

  
Is not the life of a 74 year old woman just as precious as a 24 year old woman? How can people play God and decide that it is not economically feasible to treat people over a certain age? While this study seems to be a joint effort of the U.S. and Europe; we have all heard about how the women in Europe who are denied cancer treatments and die at higher rates than women in the U.S. because of the research and available treatments we have here. If mammograms are not performed routinely on women until they are 50 – many more women will die who would have had a chance at long term survival.