Letter of the Day: Cancer screening guidelines sound like a death sentence

Steve Rice, Star Tribune

A federal advisory panel has said that the benefits of screening women in their 40s are outweighed by the potential for unnecessary tests, treatment and anxiety.

Last update: November 19, 2009 - 10:19 AM

Before I read in Tuesday's Star Tribune that a "government panel" has decreed that women in their 40s no longer need to bother with annual mammograms, I didn't believe in death panels. Now I do.

C.S. WALLACE, MINNEAPOLIS

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As a two-time breast cancer survivor, I think I can speak for the countless women I've met at events such as the Race for the Cure and the Breast Cancer 3-Day in saying that if we'd waited until we were over 50 to have our first mammograms, we'd be dead. As for self-exam, my first cancer I found on self-exam. The other was found on a mammogram. Additionally, I have no risk factors other than being female. It seems to me that this announcement and change of recommended screening will lead to late-stage diagnosis and plummeting survival rates.

MAUREEN LARSON, BLOOMINGTON

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Saturday will mark my sixth year as a breast cancer survivor. At the time of my diagnosis, I was 40 years old. I am alive today due to early detection and persistence on my part.

A mammogram detected my tumor early. It was 0.3 centimeters, which is a third of the size that tumors are normally discovered. I was initially told, "It is a common calcification -- come back in six months." I had to demand the biopsy that I was scheduled for. Surgery was done to remove the tumor, and although my margins were clean the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. This little tiny tumor that was found very early had already spread.

To win this war on cancer, we need to discover it at its earliest, most treatable stages. Had the new guidelines been in place, my cancer wouldn't have been discovered until the tumor was big enough to feel. By that time it would have ravaged my body. This would have decreased my chance for survival and cost my insurance company substantially more to fight the disease.

DEBORAH WAGNER, EDINA

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