ACS Changes Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines

BOSTON (CBS) – There is brand new advice from the American Cancer Society regarding breast cancer screening in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Dr. Mallika Marshall spoke to a local expert about the new guidelines. “I get mammograms every year on a yearly basis and I’ve been starting since age 40,” says Katrina Harris of Braintree. She says that’s because that was the advice of the American Cancer Society (ACS), but no longer. For the first time in 12 years, they’re changing their guidelines. The ACS now recommends that average risk women begin screening at the age of 45, get annual mammograms until 55, and then get them every other year. The new recommendations from the ACS are falling more in line with those of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a group of experts who make recommendations about screening tests. Where the two organizations still differ, however, is with women ages 45 to 55. The Task Force suggests screening every other year starting at age 50. So which guidelines should women follow? “There is probably no one size fits all answer to the question of ‘should I have a mammogram?’” says Dr. Nancy Keating, a primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who co-wrote an editorial about the new guidelines. “Women in their late 40s and early 50s have a generally relatively low risk of developing breast cancer and a very low risk of dying from breast cancer, but it’s not z...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Breast Cancer Health Local News Seen On WBZ-TV Syndicated Local Dr. Mallika Marshall Source Type: news