New cancer guidelines confuse, dismay

TAMPA - It has become a controversial issue: at what age should women get mammograms? A government task force is going against what women have been taught for years.

Normally, the baseline screening starts at age 40 and is done every year. The task force of doctors and scientists now recommends most women don't need to start until the age of 50 and only every other year.

They also say self breast exams do no good.

Rhonda Nelson, a Tampa mother of three, said she's proof self exams do work.

She felt a lump in her left breast, over the summer. Within weeks, she had a mastectomy and started chemotherapy.

She is disappointed with the new recommendations.

"It's amazing to me that something this radical would come out, without having a clearer message behind it. That maybe breast self examination isn't the best method to detect breast cancer, but it is what we have," she said.

Nelson is just 36 years old and has no family history of breast cancer. She said, with tears in her eyes, it was hard to hear the diagnosis

"I knew before I walked in the room, that it was breast cancer. I just knew," she recalled.

Dr. Christopher George, an oncologist with Florida Cancer Specialists in Tampa, said the reality is, for women between the ages of 40 and 50, there is not an ideal test for the general population.

For those who have a family history, they still need to be seen annually.

But Dr. George said with those who have no history and have normal breast exams, mammograms typically are not needed. But he continued to say, it should be an individual decision between patient and doctor.

As for self exams, Dr. George does not agree with the task force.

"To tell women not to be paying attention to what's going on in their breasts I think is a wrong message," George said. "Because I think women do frequently find abnormalities that leads to early diagnosis."

Rhonda said when she found her cancer, it was already Stage three. She wonders what would have happened if she would have dismissed the lump. Or if others wait until they are 50 to get tested.
"If I had to wait until 50 for my first mammogram and was told, 'don't bother doing self breast exams,' I wouldn't have made it to 50 to get a breast exam"

She believes every life that can be saved is worth it.