The John C. Lincoln Breast Health and Research Center in Phoenix joins Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Radiology and other groups concerned with the health of women in opposing the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations that women in their 40s do not get screening mammograms.

Mammography unquestionably has been shown to save lives, especially in women ages 40 to 49. At least 10 percent of all breast cancers detected by a screening mammogram are in women ages 40 to 49, and cancer in younger women is almost always more aggressive and, if untreated, more deadly.

At the other end of the spectrum, no medical research demonstrates reduction of risk for breast cancer after age 74. It makes no sense to say women over 74 no longer need regular screening mammograms. Breast cancer risk increases with age and is higher for women after age 70.

The panel also recommended against breast self-exams, but we know that many women's lives have been saved from a monthly self-check and an annual screening mammogram beginning at age 40.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure alone has spent almost $1 billion on research that shows that mammograms are the best tool in detecting breast cancer.

These USPSTF recommendations are based on data referencing studies from 1992 to 2001 and do not include the advances made in the last eight years, especially with digital mammography. The USPSTF recommendations ignore scientific data and place a great many women at risk of dying unnecessarily from a disease that we have made significant headway against over the past 20 years. Since the onset of regular mammography screening in 1990, the mortality rate from breast cancer, which had been unchanged for the preceding 50 years, has decreased by 30 percent.

These breast care recommendations — made by a task force that did not include a radiologist, an oncologist or a breast surgeon — are inconsistent with current science. These recommendations, in combination with recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reimbursement decreases for diagnostic imaging, jeopardize access to both long proven and cutting-edge diagnostic imaging technologies.

The USPSTF claims that the "harms" of mammography — including discomfort of the exam, anxiety over positive results and possibility of overtreatment — are more important than saving lives through breast cancer screening. Risk of overtreatment should not overshadow the proven life-saving value of mammography. State-of-the-art digital mammography and improved ultrasound are better at distinguishing between benign lumps and cancer.

Without doubt, the possibility of having one's life saved through early detection far outweighs any of these concerns. Any discomfort or anxiety over a mammogram is dwarfed by the discomfort and anxiety of battling late stage breast cancer, which would have had a much better chance of being cured if it had been identified in its earliest stage by a regular screening mammogram.

We support saving women's lives by detecting cancer as early as possible, at its most treatable stage, through annual screening mammograms and monthly self-checks.

Rhonda Forsyth
President and CEO, John C. Lincoln Health Network

Linda Greer, MD
Medical Director and Radiologist, John C. Lincoln Breast Health and Research Center

Corliss Chun, MD
Radiologist, John C. Lincoln Breast Health and Research Center

Sherry Gage
Director, John C. Lincoln Breast Health and Research Center