Published: November 25, 2009 08:11 am      

Decades of research in risk of dismissal

If you live in the Johnstown area and have had a mammogram, chances are good that it was interpreted by one of the radiologists of Cambria-Somerset Radiology.

Radiologists are physicians specially trained in patient diagnosis and care through medical imaging.

We help save lives and health-care dollars by detecting diseases early so that your surgeon or primary care physician can begin effective treatment for cancer, heart disease and countless other illnesses.

It was through long and painstaking radiologic research that the recommendations for mammography were determined. For nearly the past two decades, the American College of Radiology (www.acr.org), the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org) and the American Society of Breast Surgeons (www.breastsurgeons.org) have recommended annual mammograms beginning at age 40. The breast cancer mortality rate has decreased 30 percent during these two decades.

Before these recommendations came into common practice, breast cancer mortality had been unchanged for 50 years.

Mammograms are not perfect, but they have unquestionably been shown to save lives.

Mammography is part of the “three-legged stool” of breast cancer diagnosis.

Monthly breast self-examination and yearly clinical breast examination by your doctor are the other two legs of the stool.

As many of you are aware, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recently issued “recommendations” that have cut all three legs of the stool. The task force believes that the value of clinical breast examinations is unknown, that breast self-exams are of no value and that mammography should begin at age 50, stop at age 74 and be done no more than every other year. These recommendations ignore valid radiologic research that could place many women at risk of dying from a disease that the medical community has made significant strides against in the past 20 years.

It is our hope that wiser heads will prevail and that the three-legged stool of breast cancer detection will not come crashing down with the women of our community on it. Congress desires to enhance the role of the task force in terms of its impact on coverage of existing services, including mammography.

Is that what you want? If you do, be prepared for the fall. If you don’t, let your congressmen know your feelings.



Dr. Lawrence M. McNiesh is a radiologist with Cambria-Somerset Radiology.