Winchester Hospital Breast Care Center Associate Directors Confirm Support for Annual Mammograms for Women Beginning at Age 40, in Opposition to Government Study

Winchester, Mass. – Delphine Lui, MD, associate medical imaging director of the Winchester Hospital Breast Care Center, and Kelley Cornell, MD, associate medical clinical director of the Winchester Hospital Breast Care Center, have joined the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in confirming the importance of regular mammography screening for women beginning at age 40, in opposition to a government study.
 
The US Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently released controversial new guidelines that recommend screening mammography begin at age 50 instead of 40, and to increase the interval for mammograms to every two years. The task force’s new guidelines, which have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, also state that breast self-examination is not useful at any age.
 
According to the USPSTF, delaying screening will eliminate unnecessary biopsies and other tests prompted by false positives.
 
“The USPSTF has ignored rigorous, controlled research showing the life-saving benefit of screening mammography for women over the age of 40. These trials showed that routine screening mammography reduced breast cancer mortality by at least 30 percent, and this is widely believed to be an underestimation of the benefit of screening,” said Dr. Lui. “The new guidelines would turn back the clocks to a previous era before the benefit of mammography, and if adopted, would result in an increasing death rate from breast cancer.”
 
“The USPSTF’s recommendations amount to the rationing of health care to a vulnerable population of women who only seek to take care of their health in the most effective manner possible,” she added. “Functionally, the USPSTF has concluded that women in their 40s are not worth the cost of saving their lives.”
 
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death (after lung cancer) in women. This year alone, it is estimated that 192,370 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and 40,170 will die. At the Winchester Hospital Breast Care Center, 22 percent of all cancers diagnosed in 2009 occurred in women under 50.
 
For the earliest detection, according to Dr. Cornell, women should continue to undergo annual screening mammography beginning at age 40, as well as breast self-exam and routine physical examination.
 
“With increased awareness,” she said, “more women can be diagnosed early and return to active, productive lives after treatment.”
 
The Winchester Hospital Breast Care Center is located at Baldwin Park II, 7 Alfred St., Suite 370 in Woburn. To learn more, call (781) 756-2308 or visit www.winchesterhospital.org.
 
About Winchester Hospital
Winchester Hospital is the first community hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet recognition, the American Nurses Association’s highest honor for nursing excellence. As the northwest suburban Boston area’s leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, oncology, gastroenterology, rehabilitation, radiation oncology, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Children’s Hospital Boston, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org.


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