Dear AuntMinnie Member,
When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) revised its guidelines on mammography screening in 2009, it unleashed a firestorm of criticism that persists to this day. This week, the Colorado physician who recently stepped down as chair of the USPSTF defended the new guidelines, saying they are based on "cold, hard science."
That's according to an article in our Women's Imaging Digital Community by associate editor Kate Madden Yee, who was in attendance on Sunday at the National Consortium of Breast Centers (NCBC) meeting when Dr. Ned Calonge explained the decision-making process behind the USPSTF's guideline change.
By removing its recommendation that women ages 40 to 49 receive screening mammography, and instead recommending consultation with their physicians, USPSTF was bringing its guidelines in line with the results of large-scale, randomized clinical trials on the effectiveness of mammography screening in younger women, Dr. Calonge said. Data indicated there was a mortality reduction with screening mammography in younger women, he acknowledged, but the size of the reduction -- and the prevalence of "harms" such as false positives -- prompted the guideline change.
Dr. Calonge's speech was received by a polite but skeptical NCBC audience, which peppered the former chair with questions about how the task force reached its decision. He did acknowledge that the group's experience in the mammography screening debate has prompted it to make changes in how it develops and releases new guidelines. Learn more by clicking here.
In other news in the community, read about a new study presented at last week's European Congress of Radiology on using semiquantitative analysis of breast MRI with computer-aided detection software to predict distant metastasis.
Also learn about a study released on Friday that compared using a combination of therapies in addition to lumpectomy for treating ductal carcinoma in situ to the effectiveness of relying on lumpectomy alone.
These stories and more are available in our Women's Imaging Digital Community, at women.auntminnie.com.
