Breast Cancer Diagnosis Guidelines
I am surprised and disappointed by the new guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Contradicting its earlier guidance, as well as the American Cancer Society, who believe that women should begin having mammograms until age 50, as opposed to the old guidelines which called for routine review at 40. They also suggest that a woman should be screened only every two years instead of every year. Perhaps even more surprising is the finding that women should not do self exams.
The reasoning behind the new guidelines is that only 15 percent of women in their 40's detecting cancer breast mammography and only one in 19,000 will die from breast cancer. However, many other women facing false positives, unnecessary biopsies, and anxious about the test.
As one of the 15 percent, I totally disagree with this change. At 46 years old, I discovered I had cancer breast cancer through a routine mammogram. I felt no lump, I had no idea something was wrong. Even after my cancer was diagnosed, no doctor was able to feel my lump. He had waited four years until I was 50, it is impossible to say how far the cancer may have spread.
Because of my early diagnosis, I had a lumpectomy and radiation and am now almost four years free of cancer. My oncologist told me I had "an excellent little cancer." Four years later, I doubt she would have used those words.
My friend Claire also had breast cancer. He caught his own through self-examination, but did not show up on mammography. Her cancer was not as great, and needed a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and almost went through hell and back. If he had not done a self-examination is difficult to know what could have happened.
I have trouble seeing the downside of early detection and self-exams. I prefer that worries me a false positive, to lose the opportunity to discover that I have cancer as soon as possible.
Breast Cancer Prognosis Stage 2
