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If you’re a woman living in the U.K., the National Health Service will invite you to come in for mammography screening for breast cancer every three years from age 50 through 69. In Australia, women ages 50 through 74 are advised to undergo screening every two years. Women in Uruguay ages 40 to 59 are obliged to get mandatory mammograms every two years, and in Austria, women are told, “Participation is entirely up to you!”
Sound confusing? It’s no less so in the United States, where two leading medical bodies continue to issue conflicting mammography recommendations. The American Cancer Society (ACS) released its newest guidelines on breast cancer screening Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, calling for women to begin annual screening at 45 (the previous guidelines said 40) and then transition to biennial screening from age 55 on. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of experts on prevention and evidence-based medicine convened to conduct scientific evidence reviews, released its own updated draft guidelines in May, suggesting that women get screened every other year from age 50 through 74. Although the two recommendations are more similar than they once were, they still differ over the age at which screening should start and how often it should be done. And that means doctors and women are left to decide which advice to follow.
Read full, original post: Science Won’t Settle The Mammogram Debate
