ACR, SBI: Avon Survey Reveals Potentially Deadly Effects of USPSTF Mammography Recommendations

A recent Avon Foundation for Women survey confirms what the American College of Radiology and other experts warned would happen: states are using deeply flawed and widely discredited U.S. Preventative Services Task Force mammography recommendations to deny women coverage for mammograms, and many women are foregoing long proven, life-saving mammography care based on the mistaken USPSTF recommendations.

According to the Avon national survey of cancer health educators and providers, respondents from more than a dozen states reported changes in their states’ breast and cervical cancer early detection programs following the USPSTF recommendations including the elimination of early screening programs for women under age 50. Avon reports that California, New York, Florida, Illinois and Michigan are among those states that have changed their breast cancer screening programs since the USPSTF released its guidelines. Respondents to the Avon survey also reported a decline in the number of women under 50 seeking mammograms and that many women already reluctant to have a mammogram are using the guidelines as their rationale to put off screening.

“Allowing a small number of people with no demonstrated expertise in breast cancer care to make recommendations regarding diagnosis of the nation’s second leading cancer killer makes no scientific sense, and has set a off a chain of political and clinical events that many women may ultimately pay for with their lives,” said James H. Thrall, MD, chair of the American College of Radiology Board of Chancellors. “Lawmakers at all levels need to act now to ensure that these recommendations do no further damage, and that women have full and ready access to mammography.”

source: American College of Radiology

New Ultrasound Breast Scanner Takes Up Operation In Europe

The first models of the new Siemens ultrasound system Acuson S2000 Automated Breast Volume Scanner (ABVS) have taken up operation in European radiological and gynecological clinics and offices. Patients in Switzerland, France, Portugal, Norway and Germany can now be examined with the new system. Thanks to its more accurate, three-dimensional image acquisition, the technology is particularly suitable for the diagnosis of very dense breast tissue. Dr. Frank Stöblen of the Diavero Diagnostic Center in Essen, Germany, is one of the first physicians to use the new ultrasound technology. "The ABVS system is a fascinating advancement from the previous method of manually guided ultrasound examinations. The automated system provides consistent image quality, regardless of the examiner."

Siemens Healthcare recently introduced the Acuson S2000 ABVS, the world's first multifunctional ultrasound breast scanner that automatically acquires volume images of the female breast. The user-independent, standardized images raise ultrasound examinations to a completely new level.

source: Medical News Today

Preoperative MRI Deemed Unnecessary in Women with Early-stage Breast Cancer

Researchers from the UK affiliated with the COMICE randomized trial have reported that preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) does not affect reoperation rates in women with early-stage breast cancer. The details of this study appeared in the February 13, 2010 issue of the Lancet.[1]

Preoperative MRI is increasingly being used in women with early-stage breast cancer who are undergoing breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) in order to detect additional areas of disease that may need to be removed but weren’t detectable with conventional imaging. The use of preoperative MRI is based on the assumption that it improves surgical planning, reduces follow-up surgery, and reduces the risk of local recurrence.

However, researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia, and the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have reported that preoperative MRI in early breast cancer leads to more extensive surgery without evidence of improvement in surgical outcomes or long-term prognosis. This conclusion was based on more than 20 studies evaluating the impact of MRI on detection and surgical treatment in women with early-stage breast cancer. These researchers concluded that more research is needed—in the form of randomized, controlled trials—to evaluate preoperative MRI in breast cancer patients. In the meantime they conclude that MRI causes false-positives and unnecessary surgery and does not appear to reduce re-excision rates. They assert that preoperative MRI may actually do more harm than good.

source: CancerConsultants