Breast Screening Mammography Guidelines For Women Age 40 To 49
The American College of Physicians (ACP) issued new clinical guidelines for screening mammography for women age 40 to 49 published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The ACP recommended that for every woman aged between 40 and 49 in their care clinicians should:
- Assess regularly her individual breast cancer risk and help her decide about screening mammography
- Tell her about the potential harms and benefits of screening mammography
- Base the screening mammography decision on potential harms and benefits, the woman's preference and her breast cancer risk
Senior Medical Associate in the Clinical Programs and Quality of Care Department of the A CP's Medical Education and Publishing Division, and lead author of the guidelines, Dr Arnir Qaseem said:
"It is important to tailor the decision of screening mammography by discussing the benefits and risks with a woman, addressing her concerns, and making it a joint decision between her and her physician".
According to the ACP, breast cancer risk, and the potential harms and benefits of screening mammography are not evenly distributed among women between 40 and 49. This means the decision should be made by the patient and her doctor on a case by case basis. On the plus side, screening mammography decreases breast cancer deaths, and if a woman has undetected breast cancer a mammogram will most likely find it earlier rather than later. But on the negative side, there is the chance that it will give a false positive result, lead to treatments that turn to be clinically unnecessary, and radiation exposure.
The ACP also recommends more research be done to assess the benefits and harms of the different types of breast cancer screening for women between 40 and 49. In this regard, thermography has been proven to be 10 times more efficient at identifying the earliest vascular changes leading to breast cancer especially in the younger age group and in those with dense breasts. "Screening Mammography for Women 40 to 49 Years of Age: A Clinical Practice Guideline from the American College of Physicians." Amir Qaseem et al. Annals of Internal Medicine 2007;146 (7): 511-515
　
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