Research, recommendations for breast cancer screening have long been debated 
In 1997, a federal committee of medical experts recommended against routine mammograms for women in their 40s, sparking a political uproar that led to congressional hearings and a unanimous Senate vote challenging the findings.
Now, 12 years later, a similar drama is playing out around a different federal medical panel, which this week recommended against routine mammograms for women younger than 50, saying it is not worth subjecting some patients to unnecessary biopsies, radiation and stress.
The independent panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, also recommended against teaching women to do regular self-exams and concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend that doctors do exams.
New Mammogram Advice Finds a Skeptical Audience
LOS ANGELES — In a world with few givens, there have always been a handful of life guidelines that American women could follow. Never date your best friend’s ex. Always have at least one good pair of shoes. Get an annual mammogram starting at age 40.
But the mammogram advice — which women have been gleaning for years from pamphlets in doctors’ offices, fashion magazines and the tags of pink kitchen appliances sold to raise cancer research money — has been turned on its head with the announcement by the United States Preventive Services Task Force that women without unusual cancer risks should not begin regular screening for breast cancer until age 50.
To a large degree, in interviews with women in several cities on Tuesday and comments posted on the Web, the response to the new guidelines had less to do with medicine than with a general approach to health care — and indeed life itself.
Mammograms Should Start for Women at Age 50, Not 40 (Correct)
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Annual mammograms for most women intheir 40s have more drawbacks than benefits, said a panel ofU.S. doctors that recommended women wait until age 50 to startgetting breast cancer screening tests every two years.
The change in guidelines released by the U.S. PreventiveService Task Force, a government-backed physician group, saidwomen in their 40s are more likely to get false-positive teststhat can lead to unnecessary biopsies and anxiety. Therecommendations, which also said that self-examinations wereunnecessary, don’t apply to women who carry a high risk forbreast cancer. Those women should talk to their doctors aboutwhen to get screening, the panel said.
The new guidelines, published yesterday in the Annals ofInternal Medicine, pit the task force against the AmericanCancer Society, which insisted doctors should still advise womento undergo routine annual screening starting at age 40. About 64percent of women ages 40 to 49 had an X-ray of their breastsduring the past two years, the panel’s report said.
New mammogram advice raises questions, concerns
NEW YORK — For many women, getting a mammogram is already one of life's more stressful experiences.
Now, women in their 40s have the added anxiety of trying to figure out if they should even be getting one at all.
A government task force said Monday that most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50 — a stunning reversal and a break with the American Cancer Society's long-standing position. What's more, the panel said breast self-exams do no good, and women shouldn't be taught to do them.
Officials Defend Handling of Flu Vaccine
As a nationwide shortage of swine flu vaccine stretched into its sixth week, federal health officials defended how they handled the program, arguing that the roots of the shortage were beyond their control and that they had made the right decisions on matters they could affect.
At a hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security argued that they were right not to put immune-boosting adjuvants in the vaccine even though that could have quadrupled the number of doses available now, and that they were also right to leave decisions about allocating vaccine up to local health departments instead of trying to micromanage them from Atlanta or Washington.
The shortage, the representatives said, was proof that the country needs its own new vaccine plants instead of relying on factories, most of them overseas, using 50-year-old technology.
Task force stirs up a tempest
In 1997, a federal committee of medical experts recommended against routine mammograms for women in their 40s, sparking a political uproar that led to congressional hearings and a unanimous Senate vote challenging the findings.
Now, 12 years later, a similar drama is playing out around a different federal medical panel, which this week recommended against routine mammograms for women younger than 50, saying it is not worth subjecting some patients to unnecessary biopsies, radiation and stress.
The independent panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, also recommended against teaching women to do regular self-exams and concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend that doctors do exams.
Mammograms Should Start for Women at Age 50, not 40, Panel Says
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Annual mammograms for most women intheir 40s have more drawbacks than benefits, said a panel ofU.S. doctors that recommended women wait until age 50 to startgetting breast cancer screening tests every two years.
The change in guidelines released by the U.S. PreventiveService Task Force, a government-backed physician group, saidwomen in their 40s are more likely to get false-positive teststhat can lead to unnecessary biopsies and anxiety. Therecommendations, which also said that self-examinations wereunnecessary, don’t apply to women who carry a high risk forbreast cancer. Those women should talk to their doctors aboutwhen to get screening, the panel said.
The new guidelines, published yesterday in the Annals ofInternal Medicine, pit the task force against the AmericanCancer Society, which insisted doctors should still advise womento undergo routine annual screening starting at age 40. About 64percent of women ages 40 to 49 had an X-ray of their breastsduring the past two years, the panel’s report said.
Experts question motives of mammogram guidelines
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Cancer experts fear new U.S. breast imaging guidelines that recommend against routine screening mammograms for women in their 40s may have their roots in the current drive in Washington to reform healthcare.
Critics of the guidelines, issued on Monday by the U.S. Services Task Force, an independent panel sponsored by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Quality, say the new guidelines are a step backward and will lead to more cancer deaths.
Here are some of their concerns.
Doctors gird for patient anxiety over Zetia data
ORLANDO, Fla., Nov 16 (Reuters) - The good news for Merck &Co's (MRK.N) Zetia cholesterol fighter is that doctors do notseem unduly concerned about its latest setback in a clinicaltrial. The bad news is they think patient anxiety will causeits sales to drop anyway.
Physicians interviewed after release of data from a smallstudy in which Abbott Laboratories' (ABT.N) Niaspan appeared tobe safer and more effective than Zetia, see more use of Niaspanand other long-acting niacins to boost good HDL cholesterol.And they feel more than ever that Zetia's clinical value muststill be proven even though it slashes levels of bad LDLcholesterol.
"I don't think Zetia suffered a body blow today, but it wasa cautionary warning. It will give doctors and patients a lotof temporary heartburn," said Dr. Richard Walsh, of theUniversity Hospitals of Cleveland, immediately after the datawas formally presented at the American Heart Association (AHA)scientific meeting in Orlando on Monday.
UPDATE 1-Merck up as Zetia trial less damaging than feared
* Zetia trial results less damaging to Merck than expected
* Merck shares rise 2.7 pct; Abbott up 1.3 pct
* Trial results presented at AHA meeting in Orlando
