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American Cancer Society recommends annual mammography starting at age 45
For the first time, the ACS guidelines address when to stop mammography, recommending a halt to routine screening for women with a life expectancy...
ACOG also supports the omnibus legislation passed by Congress in December that provides 2 years of no-copay coverage of breast cancer screening after age 40 via a moratorium on new breast cancer screening recommendations to allow time for additional research, an ACOG spokesperson said in an interview.
“ACOG strongly supports shared decision-making between doctor and patient, and in the case of screening for breast cancer, it is essential,” Dr. DeFrancesco said. “Given the differences among current organizational recommendations on breast cancer screening, we recognize that there may be confusion among women about when they should begin screening for breast cancer. ACOG encourages women to discuss this with their doctor, including concerns such as family history of cancer, risk factors such as overweight, and their own personal experiences with breast cancer. Moreover, it is essential that physicians counsel women about the potential consequences of mammography, including false positives.”
Dr. Albert Siu
ACOG will convene a consensus conference later in January “with the intent to develop a consistent set of uniform guidelines for breast cancer screening that can be implemented nationwide” in an effort to “avoid the confusion that currently exists among the women we treat,” according to the statement.
The issue of divergence – and convergence – among various guidelines was the topic of another editorial published in conjunction with the USPSTF recommendations. In that article, task force chair Dr. Siu and his colleagues acknowledged that disagreements exist but stressed that “it would be a disservice to women and their clinicians if these disagreements obscured a strong emerging convergence among groups who have recently issued evidence-based guidelines” (Ann Intern Med. 2016 Jan 11. doi:10.7326/M15-3065).
The operations of the USPSTF are supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. One of the members of the USPSTF reported receiving past grants and contracts from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
