New Guidelines - Mammogram at 50 - I would be dead!

AMEN thanks for posting

I found out I had 7 clusters of DCIS at my 1st mamo at age 40

 plus during my surgery they found IDC

I suggest to all women... get your 1st mamo at ago 35 than 37 than every year after age 39

so many women find out they have cancer when they wait till they are 40 : (

I echo your sentiments!  Was dx'd this June at age 37...first mammo, no issues, lumps, etc.  Stage 1 because they caught it early!

I'd be dead at 40, much less 50!  I'm so mad that they would make me wait until I had a lump...which would clearly be in the stage III or IV category at that point!

I wonder what that task force would say if THEY were under 50 and got BC.  Things would change I bet.

Woohooo -Gorilla - thanks for posting!!! You should post more often!  Major congrats on 5 years out from Triple Negative!!

This has me fuming too!  I was 39 at diagnosis, never had a mammogram since I was "too young" for even a baseline mammo!  Yes - TN is very aggressive, with higher recurrence rates and mortality rates and tends to hit YOUNG women!  How very backward this new recommendation is - they should start screening younger, not older!

Has Dr. Susan Love ever had breast cancer?

I, too was diagnosed with TN IDC at 47 and a new primary of ER+/PR- DCIS at 48. A mammogram found both. I'd be dead if I would have waited two years. And WTF is it about self exams not being helpful? Where/who are the women these people studied?

Linda

It seems like we are going backwards.  My IDC was diagnosed at age 41 and at 1.7 cm it was a lump nobody could feel. If it was not for my routine screening mammogram I believe the cancer would not have been caught so early.  TNBC tends to be more prevalent in younger women and needs aggressive treatment.  I fear the new guidelines are going to make women more complacent and breast cancer will not be found until it is more advanced.  How many sisters are going to have to die unnecessarily?  With the increase in obesity, increase in hormone's in our environment in the meat we eat, with the increase in hormones in our water supply from birth control all the chemicals we are exposed to in our environment it is no surprise that there are so many battling cancer.  I just pray that cancer can be found early enough so the battle can be won.

We survivors need to stand strong for our sisters, mothers and daughters and encourage all women to get their mammograms regardless of what the guidelines say!!!

Pam 

FACT: 19,000 to 38,000 women are diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer every year. (10-20% of roughly 190,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the US each year[1])

FACT: Triple negative breast cancer occurs most often in younger women and African-American women [2], commonly premenopausal. The average age of menopause, per the US National Institute of health, is 51 years old [3].

FACT: Triple negative breast cancer recurs in 32% of patients within 5 years, and the average survival time for TNBC after recurrence is 9 months [1].

I know statistics can be manipulated and research is often conflicted, but by my calculations that works out to be 6,080 to 12,160 women in the US every year who have a recurrence of triple negative breast cancer and DIE within 9 months from this cancer that is prevalent in women under 51!!!

That's only for triple negative cancer, which is a very small subset of breast cancer cases!

FACT: I am one of the 19,000-38,000 women diagnosed with TN breast cancer last year, and I was 39. My 5, 8, and 14 year-old children, my husband, and family and friends are hoping I'm not one of the 6-12,000 THOUSAND who will die of it.

Wow.

Sources:

[1] http://www.curetoday.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.showArticleByTumorType/id/805/tumorCategory/Breast/article_id/1235

[2] http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=7482&terms=triple+negative+ag

[3] http://www.nia.nih.gov/healthinformation/publications/menopause.htm

I'm a newbie also. I specifically joined to discuss the proposed government changes. As a survivor who was diagnosed at 38, I can not sit back and watch our government have such disregard for our healthy sisters. We have not raised all this money for research and walked all those miles to be treated this way. Maybe it's time for all of us pink tennis shoe wearing women to unite and march on Washington to save our sisters hey, it could be the "Save Our Sisters March". Has anyone heard of such an event being organized. I know if I'm thinking this other women out there have to be. 

My co-worker is TN..6 years out from diagnosis...I have talked to her and she doesn't think we should freak..that much..her doctor told her a few years ago that she was good to go..and she is..she said she was GLAD she didn't have to take anymore drugs...she takes great care of herself..exercises, eats right...I'm not sure about those stats above...she is my hope...

I am more upset that they are down playing Monthly Self Breast Exams.....that is how I found mine. My dear friend who has since passed found hers by doing self exams........in fact it was the first time she ever felt her boobs for lumps....she had triple negative.

My niece has a thick area under her right arm and has been under a lot of stress the last 3 years. I told her to get it checked out and emailed her information--she is 35 years old. I guess I could of told her to ignore it and just get on with her life...........HELL NO!

I am so pissed I can hardly see straight!

I ALSO WANT TO KNOW WHERE ALL OF THE MONEY THAT HAS BEEN DONATED IN VARIOUS BREAST CANCER GROUPS ARE GOING TO NOW? Is the Cancer Society going to jump on board this VOODOO Health Care? If they do.......I WILL TRASH THEM and every other organization that TURNS THEIR BACK ON WOMEN AND MEN.

Women who fall in the minority classes SHOULD BE OUTRAGED! People have worked hard going door to door in some very poor under served neighborhoods to educate the women about early detection.............NOW WHAT DO THEY SAY!

NEVER, NEVER, allow these BOUGHT OUT MEDICAL ADVOCATES to take away all of the hard work we have been doing! This is just the beginning of taking away our HEALTH CARE!

I LOVE YOU ALL SISTERS!

Terry 

I cannot believe they are saying no mammograms and self exams are unneccesary.  I agree they're not perfect, but what test is perfect - they all have flaws.  Knowing your breast is so important - knowing where the lumps and bumps are help you to know when something just isn't right.  I had regular mammograms and found my lump two months before my regular mammogram.  Personally, I believe mammograms and self exams are extremely important, both helped me to get dx'd - I was was dx'd at Stage III, TNBC, age 43 - this is with regular mammograms starting at 40.  And.... had I not already had my mammogram scheduled and called my dr with my findings I was told they would have told me to monitor it for several months because I wasn't a candidate for cancer.

Without giving myself a self exam I would not have found my lump and the mammogram not only confirmed the one I found, but found several more lumps in my breast (only 2 with cancer) several and huge lumps in my lymph nodes, which I had not found.

Hey thenewme: Thanks for the source - great article on Trip Neg.  And being in Toronto, I have a lot of respect for the people at Princess Margaret. I take some comfort in knowing that the cohort that was followed was diagnosed from 1987 to 1997 - therefore would not have had the benefit of the 3rd gen chemo regimens we are now routinely given to control distant recurrence. 

I'm not sure how I feel about the U.S. guidelines - not to stir up a hornet's nest here, but they are actually what has been in effect in Canada for some time (based on population-based evidence of relative risk/cost/benefit).  That didn't stop me from getting annual screening mammos from my mid-40s onwards (covered by our public system) based on my doc's recommendation... mammos, I will add, that didn't detect my cancer even after it was palpable!  Also, while "formal BSE" is no longer advocated here in Canada either, I don't know a doc who wouldn't advise women to regularly feel their breasts and report any breast changes i.e. be breast aware.

In some ways I see the controversy stemming as much from flawed communication as anything else -- but maybe that's just a personal bias as I work in communications.    

Does anyone else find the additional recommendation to decide when to have a mammo in consultation with one's physician more than a bit off-putting? Of course, it's always a great idea to ask your doctor about any health concern, but this is the group we look to for recommendations. When it comes to any individual case, they back off of the recommendation of waiting until 50 and say, "Don't ask us. Ask your doctor." It's because they used to say go get a mammo at 40 that we get the appointment to talk to the doc in the first place. That's when the conversation they recommend takes place! Certainly they must know this. How irresponsible!