Simple screening tools still valuable

I'm mad!

The reason I'm mad is because my best friend was diagnosed with a mammogram that identified breast cancer several years ago when she was between the ages of 40 and 50. This week the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced "updates in its recommendations on screening for breast cancer in the general population. They judged that, although women in their 40s and women in their 50s benefit equally from routine screening mammography, women in their 40s experience greater harms from screening than women in their 50s. The harms assessed by the USPSTF were radiation exposure, false-positive and false-negative results, over-diagnosis, pain during procedures, and anxiety, distress, and other psychologic responses." This task force may very well control whether insurance will pay for screening mammograms.

If you examine the members of the Task Force, not one of them is an oncologist, radiation oncologist, breast surgeon, or breast radiologist. That means they haven't seen the faces of the women who are diagnosed with cancer; they haven't seen the relief of women knowing that they are cancer free for another year. Before I came to Texas Health Resources, I worked in a breast center and saw hundreds of women from ages 19 to their 80s diagnosed with breast cancer. Most of the under 40 aged women identified their own cancer by noticing lumps on self breast exam or a clinical exam from their physician. The USPSTF has also recommended that self exams and clinical exams are not helpful. So tell these women that these simple measures weren't valuable.

These inexpensive screenings cost between $125 - $200. What a minimal cost!! There are better ways to save money in health care than to recommend taking away simple screening tools. The mortality rate of breast cancer has decreased since the use of screening mammography. If you want to view websites that are trustworthy about breast cancer, go to www.komen.org or the American Cancer Society website - www.cancer.org.

Mary Lou Wilson, RN, BSN
Director, Women's Services
Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford