The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center in Chattanooga announced on Thursday that it will continue to support and recommend that its patients follow guidelines for the early detection of breast cancer established by the American Cancer Society.

The announcement comes on the heels of a new study released this week by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending that women can wait until age 50 for their first mammogram and they only need to get the exams every two years.

“We know that 20 percent of all patients diagnosed with breast cancer are under the age of 50, and mammography contributes in large part to the early detection of the disease when it is most treatable,” said Stephen Golder, M.D., radiation oncologist and medical director for The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center Network.

“When breast cancer is diagnosed at later stages, patients typically have higher risks of recurrence and breast cancer deaths.”

The government-funded panel of doctors and scientists concluded that getting screened for breast cancer so early and so often leads to too many false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving a woman’s odds of survival. Additionally, the panel found no benefit in women performing self-breast examinations and suggests the practice not be recommended.

Mark E. Cooper, M.D., a surgeon with The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center in Nashville, said he will continue to strongly encourage his patients to perform self-breast exams and get annual mammography screening after age 40.

“This study reviewed the data, but we all know that if tortured enough, data will confess anything,” said Dr. Cooper.

The American Society of Breast Disease reports that fully 70 percent of all women diagnosed with breast cancer had no known risk before the time of diagnosis. ASBD also notes that mammography can reduce breast cancer mortality as much as 32 percent among women ages 40 to 70 years at entry to screening and only 50 percent of women over age 40 have had a mammogram in the past year, a fact which indicates that women need to be further encouraged to have this simple non-invasive screening exam.

According to Dr. Cooper, mammography has been responsible for increasing the findings of ductal carcinoma in-situ from three percent to 21 percent currently, and has increased the detection of early stage breast cancer from 25 percent to 42 percent.

“And, you certainly can’t deny the significance of declining mortality rates from breast cancer within the last five years due to screening mammography—39 percent less mortality than prior to five years ago,” said Dr. Cooper.

Laura Robinson, oncology nurse navigator at The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center in Chattanooga, expressed concern about the confusion these new recommendations will create for women. “It is so important for women to talk with their health care provider about their individual risks for breast cancer and for them to be an active and informed partner in their healthcare,” said Ms. Robinson. “Those conversations are all the more important now with these conflicting screening recommendations.”

The Sarah Cannon Cancer Centers will continue to educate their patients and recommend they follow the American Cancer Society guidelines which include:
· Routine breast self-examination so that women can become familiar with their own breasts and tell their doctor about any changes
· Annual screening mammogram beginning at age 40, and
· Clinical breast exams performed by a health care provider and recommended annually after age 40.

Sarah Cannon Cancer Center specialists all acknowledged that mammography is not a perfect tool. “In fact, mammography does produce some false positive results,” said Dr. Golder. “But it is currently the best tool we have in our arsenal for early detection of breast cancer, and certainly our patients who are now breast cancer survivors credit it as life-saving, regardless of it imperfections.”

“To put it simply,” said Dr. Golder, “catching breast cancer early through mammography saves lives. Telling women to delay routine screenings until age 50 will miss potentially curable breast tumors in younger women. We need to focus our efforts on improving the technology to lower the mortality rate of the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.”

The cancer experts with The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center respect the USPS Task Force members, but at this time, are not ready to embrace their conclusions. “We expect in the coming months to see a great deal of further study and data analysis. We will take time to carefully analyze the results of further research to determine whether we need to change how we use mammography as a screening tool.”