When I first heard the news of the new mammogram guidelines recommending that women wait until they are 50 to get their first mammogram my first thought was: what are they thinking?  My second thought was: What does Dr. Marisa Weiss think. 

As a leading oncologist and the founder of breastcancer.org (and lucky for me, a personal friend) when anything regarding breast health is in the news I want to know where she stands. I didn't have to wait long to find out because she was right in the mix voicing her opposition and outrage in yesterday's NY Times and in a press release today.

"The recommendation to change breast screening is a huge step backwards," she said. 

"The data simply does not account for the human perspective. It would be an enormous mistake to allow outdated data using older technology provided by computer-generated analysis to dictate how health care professionals screen women for early detection of breast cancer. These are real people with their lives at stake... for whom mammography has a proven survival benefit."

In addition to these statements, Marisa wrote a detailed letter to her community on breastcancer.org.  In it, she outlines the flaws and potentially fatal consequences of the new guidelines. She also highlights the fact that what the US Protective Task Force considers a negligible number to justify waiting for and reducing the number of mammograms is anything but negligible. 

"Expressed as nameless, faceless numbers, the 3% decrease in breast cancer survival might seem like an acceptable trade-off when compared to the economic benefits of changing breast cancer screening policies. But breast cancer affects a very large number of women, so 3% of that number is not insignificant. The reality is that more women -- mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, and aunts -- will die each year from breast cancer, which is neither reasonable nor acceptable."

What do you think about these new guidelines?