- Share This Post
- submit
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
by Alisan B. Goldfarb, M.D., F.A.C.S.
As a practicing breast surgeon and member of the Medical Advisory Board of Women's Voices for Change, I was asked to review the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)'s recommendation statement discouraging routine screening and regular breast self-exams. I think folly is too kind a description.
Outrageous would be my choice of words. I seriously question how a group of educated men and women could evaluate the same data, which overwhelmingly demonstrated that routine yearly screening mammography saved lives, and come to the conclusion that the risk-benefit ratio was not in favor of screening for all women.
On the risk side was the anxiety that an abnormal mammogram might cause. More testing, such as additional mammographic views, or even a sonogram might be ordered. A needle biopsy, or rarely a surgical biopsy, might be necessary to see if a mammographic abnormality was in fact an early cancer or a benign change. Since when does becoming anxious, needing an additional test or requiring a biopsy get weighed on a scale against saving a life?
Continue reading about the new guidelines at Women's Voices For Change
