New breast cancer screening guidelines stir up controversy
Posted November 21, 2011 2:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – New Canadian breast cancer screening guidelines say most women in their 40s should not have routine mammograms because they may cause more harm than good – but a local woman says early screening saved her life.
Judy Caldwell, who founded the BC chapter of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, says she was screened at 46, and if she had waited until she was 50, she would be dead.
“It gives you a good chance at catching it earlier,” she says. “That’s the key thing here, earlier is better because you can take care of it, get your treatment and go on with your life.”
The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care says the risk of false positive results and unnecessary treatment outweighs the benefit of preventing a small number of deaths.
Evidence shows just over 2,000 women need to be screened over 11 years to prevent one death, but one-in-three of them get false positives. That can mean unnecessary follow-up testing and in some cases unnecessary surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
The Task Force, which includes a researcher from SFU, also says women 50 to 74 with an average risk of breast cancer should get a mammogram every two to three years. Previous guidelines advised women 50 to 69 to get screened every two years.
Task Force Chair Dr. Marcello Tonelli says all women should discuss the potential benefits and risks of a mammogram before deciding whether to get the test.
This year, an estimated 23,600 Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,100 will die of the disease.
