Key References

1.  Recommendation by government agency to start screening at age 50

A.  U.S. Preventative Services Task Force:  “Draft Recommendation Statement:  Breast Cancer Screening.” 2015.
http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/RecommendationStatementFinal/breast-cancer-screening

B.  Explanation of how new legislation would give insurance companies the right to deny payment for mammograms for women under 50.
http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/UpdateSummaryFinal/breast-cancer-screening

2.  Task force Guidelines are base on Cost-containment:

3.    The one study that concludes mammograms don’t save lives: (only “randomized”   study that has come to this conclusion)..”The first Canadian study:

  • Miller A.B., Wall C., Baines C. et. al. “Twenty-Five Year Follow-up for Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study: Randomized Screening Trial,” British Medical J 348     

             (February 2014): g366.

4.  Critiques of the First Canadian study:

  • Kopans D.B.  “The Most Recent Breast Cancer Screening Controversy About Whether Mammographic Screening Benefits Women at Any Age: Nonsense and  Nonscience,” AJR 180 (January 2003): 21-26.
  • Boyd N.F., Jung R.A., Yaffe A.J. et. al.  “A critical Appraisal of the Canadian National Breast Cancer Study,” Radiology 189 (January 1994): 661-663.
  • Boyd N.F. “The Review of Randomization in the Canadian National Breast Screening Study: Is the Debate Over?” Canadian Medical Association 156 (1977): 207-209.
  • Weiss, M. “Garbage In, Garbage Out: A Flawed Study Cannot Measure the Value of Mammograms.”  Huffington Post April 2014.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marisa-weiss-md/garbage-in-garbage-out-a-_b_4824005.html
  • Heywang-Köbrunner S. H., SchreerI., Hacker A. et. al. “Conclusions for mammography screening after 25-year follow-up of the Canadian National Breast Cancer Screening Study (CNBSS).” Eur Radiol 26 (2016):342–350.

5.  Studies proving the effectiveness of starting mammographic screening at age 40 (two key studies out a long list of studies)

  • Tabár L., Vitak, B., Chen T.H.  et. al. “Swedish Two-County Trial: Impact Mammographic Screening on Breast Cancer Mortality During 3 Decades,” Radiology 260 (September 2011): 658-663.
  • Coldman A., Phillips N., Wilson C. et. al. “Pan-Canadian Study of Mammography Screening and Mortality From Breast Cancer,” Natl Cancer Inst 106 (July 2014):1-7.     (Second Canadian Study)

6.  New technology that can reduce breast cancer mortality

  • Schattner E.  “Automated Ultrasound Can Improve Breast Cancer Detection In Women With Dense Breasts.”  Forbes/ Pharma& Healthcare.  April 2015.
  • Friedewald S. M., Rafferty E. A., Rose S.L.  “Breast Cancer Screening Using Tomosynthesis in Combination With Digital Mammography,”JAMA311(2014): 2499-2507.
  •  Kelly M.K., Dean J., Coumlada W.S. et. al.  “Breast Cancer Detection Using Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound and Mammography in Radiographically Dense Breasts,” EurRadiol 20 (March 2010): 734-742.
  • Berg W. A.,Zhang Z.,Lehrer D, Jong R.A. “Detection of Breast Cancer With Addition of Annual Screening Ultrasound or a Single Screening MRI to Mammography in Women With Elevated Breast Cancer Risk”

7.  Organization that advises starting screening mammography at age 40

·Also see: National Comprehensive Cancer Network.  “For Breast Cancer, When to Screen or Not to Screen? That is the Question Plaguing the Minds of U.S. Women—and Their Clinicians.” April 2016. 
https://www.nccn.org/patients/foundation/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=672

8:  Screening women at increased risk of developing breast cancer:

9.  Evidence that breast cancer is in large part a disease of young women: