Breast cancer guidelines

There is often no rhyme or reason as to who gets breast cancer. Mammograms have detected many malignancies in women in their 40s who have many years of life ahead of them: wives, mothers, daughters, coworkers and friends.

Given that mammography is a cornerstone in our ability to save women’s lives from breast cancer, which is a leading cause of death among women between the ages of 40 and 49, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care’s guidelines that appear in the Nov. 22, 2011, issue of CMAJ1 are absolutely unconscionable.

The guidelines1 could result in fewer women getting screened and a return to the days when we caught cancers only when they were big enough to feel. Without mammography, many women would not be candidates for treatment. You cannot treat a tumour until you find it.

Have you any idea how breast cancers can metastasize in two or three years? Have you ever visited a loved one in a hospice? This is not the time to turn back the clock. Finding a tumour late often leads to a poor prognosis.

Mammography has a proven track record, and we as doctors “must do no harm.” By jettisoning this life-saving tool, we are indeed harming the patient.