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Home > Community > Editor's Corner
The Mayhem Surrounding Mammograms November 25, 2009
Ashley Glowinski
e-Editor
| Last week’s national news regarding the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force mammogram recommendations received quite a backlash—and for good reason. The USPSTF stated that there is scientific evidence mammograms hold little benefit for women in their 40s and those over 50 should reduce mammograms to every other year. In a single swoop, the statement contradicted every cancer-prevention advice most women have ever heard or read. In fact, a new Gallup poll found 75% of U.S. women aged 35 to 75 disagree with the new recommendations out of 1136 surveyed. To add to the cancer mayhem, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released another relaxed recommendation that women should not start screening for cervical cancer until they are 21, and only every other year.
The Washington Post reported that the USPSTF recommendation was based on two studies: a synthesis of research data on the effectiveness of screening and a set of 6 different statistical models to examine how often women should be screened.
Despite scientific studies, these anti-preventative recommendations feel like women are being told to stay put in a burning building. According to the American Cancer Society, a total of 192,370 new female breast cancer cases are expected in the U.S. for 2009 and more than 11,000 new cases for cervical cancer—numbers that can only grow if the government continues to deemphasize the importance of preventative health care.
While I do not believe anyone should test to the point of paranoia, I do know that every cancer survivor I have ever met survived because of early detection. How is waiting 2 years between tests validated as “good medicine”?
As President Obama pushes for universal health care, perhaps preventative health care should be a stronger U.S. priority. The obesity uprise, for example, has been an ongoing struggle within the last 20 years and has helped make heart disease the #1 killer in the nation. Yet only recently have healthy initiatives like required gym classes in schools and nutritional guides on restaurant menus been in place. If America’s obesity problem was addressed sooner, the challenge might not have become so unmanageable.
Some believe the mammogram recommendation is an effort to reduce the U.S. health care budget, which, according to the National Institutes of Health, estimated $228.1 billion for cancer costs alone in 2008. While the recommendations might not be biased, it still seems that preventative measures would save the U.S. more money—and lives—than treating full-blown cases.
Medicine, science and technology will continually evolve, as should individual common sense. In the end, no one is going to tell you to eat healthy, push you to exercise, or schedule your cancer-screening test. Regardless of the recent recommendations, we must use our own judgment when it comes to our bodies—after all, they are the only ones we’ve got.
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