If you didn't hear it, you missed a great discussion about the new guidelines regarding routine mammograms on "Up To Date" with Steve Kraske of the KC Star, on NPR. Click Here for link and podcast but you'll now need to go to the ARCHIVES to find it...
Did you know, that the overall use of mammography has only decreased deaths from breast cancer 2% ( this number had believed to be as high 30%). Even so, 2% is still many mom's and grandma's and aunt's. However, there is concern for safety of repeated mammograms -- "According to the Dept of Energy, a typical mammogram applies 25 times the radiation of a standard chest x-ray." I would wonder how long it would take a 40 year-old women w/out breast cancer getting annual mammograms to develop breast cancer as a result? 10 years, 20 years, even 30? And according to Dr. David Bouda, of Menora Medical Center (one of the guests on the show), many of the types of cancers that could be detected by mammography, are not life threatening, and by diagnosing and undergoing a biopsy, etc... can just cause more problems than needed.
New guidelines for breast cancer screening are causing quite the commotion since the announcement last week that women should hold off getting annual mammograms by a decade. The new guidelines also recommend against teaching women to do self breast exams.
Today Steve Kraske talks with Dr. David Bouda, Medical Director, Midwest Cancer Care at Menorah Medical Center and Dr. Elizabeth Campbell, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist with the Avera Women's Clinic in Mitchell, SD. We'll discuss the debate for and against the new guidelines, how the guidelines might affect insurance, and why public opinion is largely against the change.
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