"The net effect of the new guidelines is that screening would begin too late and its effects would be too little. We would save money, but lose lives," says Stephen Feig, MD, professor of radiology at the University of California at Irvine and president-elect of the American Society of Breast Imaging.
Feig and other panel members were reacting to newly revised guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) that recommend against routine mammography screening for average-risk women in their 40s.
USPSTF also says women between the ages of 50 and 74 should have mammogram screenings every two years instead of every year.
Breast Guidelines Wipe Out Years of Progress
The breast screening panel says the guidelines would represent a major setback, wiping out decades of progress.
"Deaths from breast cancer have dropped by 30% since 1990, when mammography screening beginning at age 40 became more widespread," says Daniel B. Kopans, MD, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.
He says the task force relied on studies with methodology flaws that underestimated the benefits of mammography.
"Numerous [well-designed] studies have proven the benefits of annual mammograms beginning at age 40," Kopans says.
"The guidelines tell women in their 40s that they can go back to the 1950s when they had to wait until a tumor was too large to ignore, and then go to the doctor when there was no longer any chance of a cure," Kopans says.
Breast Screens' Benefits Outweigh Risks
Feig also took issue with USPSTF's reasoning that for younger women, annual mammograms carry a risk of harm, chiefly anxiety and false positives, that could outweigh their benefits.
"Think of a smoke detector. Do you want it to go off only when the house is half burned down or put up with the fact that it will sometimes go off when there is smoke in the kitchen?
"You’re going to have some false positives, if you detect cancer early," when it is most curable, Feig says.
The panel spoke here at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.