Findings conflict with American Cancer Society

Task force retains old ideas — women under 50 must decide for selves about mammograms

Six years ago, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force kickstarted a debate on what precise age women should get mammograms.

How?

By making integral to its report the notion that those under 50 should consider not doing the screenings.

The task force recently revisited its recommendations regarding breast cancer testings — and added a segment on 3-D mammography.

But its basic findings are unchanged.

It still suggests women 50 to 74 get a screening every two years, and that women 40 to 49, after consultation with their physicians, decide on their own.

The task force's recommendations come in direct conflict with the American Cancer Society, which urges all women to have yearly mammograms beginning at age 40.

Some of the cancer industry's conflicts and flip-flopping are detailed in a new VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, wrote: "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer."