Breast Cancer Screening

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By Kyle Midura

Story Published: Nov 17, 2009 at 8:41 PM MDT

Story Updated: Nov 18, 2009 at 11:29 AM MDT

BILLINGS - The government's new recommendation for breast cancer screening has some local doctors scratching their heads.

A Department of Health and Human Services panel said only those older than 50 should get annual mammograms. The American Cancer Society strongly disagrees.

The panel found that for women younger than 50, the negative effects of yearly breast cancer screening outweighed the positives. They said false-positive test results are more likely before age 50 and can give women a false sense of worry or relief.

Doctors at St. Vincent Healthcare said they won't change their policies, and one local breast cancer survivor said reducing screening efforts doesn't make sense.

"Statistically they may say that only a certain percentage would not have been discovered," said breast cancer survivor Alice Golden, "however even if it's 1%, if you are that 1%, it might as well be 100%."

"Sometimes in the younger age groups you're detecting cancers that are more aggressive," said Mitch Gallagher, a radiologist at St. Vincent Healthcare. "So the idea of early detection mean's we're really curing a lot of cases."

Dr. Gallagher said doctors at St. Vincent have treated more than 300 cases of breast cancer since the beginning of 2008. He said 52 of which involved women between the ages of 40 and 49.

Wednesday, Nov 18 at 12:34 PM Matilda wrote ...

If you think this is bad, just wait until the government-run healthcare option that some of you support kicks in! If all of us don't mobilize NOW and tell our representatives and the White House that we don't want, won't support, and won't accept any government-run option in healthcare reform, then it will be too late! Once a government-run option is voted in on the Hill, we will see an erosion that will begin immediately of any control we now have over our healthcare and of those we love.

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