A government task force is offering breast examination advice that runs contrary to the long-standing position of the American Cancer Society.
     
The task force says most women don't need a mammogram in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50.

Dr. David DeBlasio, a Watertown radiation oncologist, says he found the recommendations "very disturbing".

"I've spent 25 years trying to get people to go for their mammograms and I'm a little afraid that people will start to avoid the mammograms," he said.

 The new guidelines, which were issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, also says breast self-exams do no good and women shouldn't be taught to do them.

Its stance influences coverage of screening tests by Medicare and many insurance companies.

Alysia Quinlan, a radiation technician at Watertown's Samaritan Medical Center and a breast cancer survivor, says she thinks the new recommendations are all about money and not what's best for patients.

Thanks to a mammogram in her early 40s, a malignant tumor was found in Quinlan's breast.

"It (cancer) is not discriminatory against anyone or any age type. We think it's very important that people go and get checked," she said.
     
For its part, the American Cancer Society has been recommending annual mammograms beginning at 40, and it's staying with that position.

But the government 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 women's odds of survival.

See the United States Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations

 See the American Cancer Society's Response

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