Riverside County Condemns New Mammogram Guidelines

RIVERSIDE -The Riverside County Board of Supervisors signed off today on a resolution condemning a federal advisory panel for stating that routine mammograms for women under 50 are unnecessary.

“My mother, Charlene, died within six months of being diagnosed with breast cancer,” said board Chairman Jeff Stone, who authored the unanimously approved “Regular Examination of Breasts Extends Lives,” or REBEL, resolution.

“Early detection is the key,” he said. “If you catch it early, there’s a 95 percent survival rate. If it goes on, the mortality rate increases exponentially.”

Stone blasted the new guidelines, published in November by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which recommends that mammograms and self-exams to detect breast cancer not be performed until a woman reaches the age of 50.

The task force, which advises doctors, insurance companies and government policymakers, determined the risk of radiation exposure and false positives associated with breast cancer screening outweighed the benefits for women under 50.

The American Cancer Society rejected the findings, noting that in the last two decades, breast cancer mortality has dropped 30 percent, in large part because of early detection methods for women of all ages.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 192,370 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and 20 percent will die from the disease.

Stone’s REBEL resolution blames the task force’s recommendations for leading the California Department of Public Health to modify its “Every Woman Counts” program, which provides free clinical breast exams to women 40 and older from low-income households.

Beginning July 1, the program will only enroll women 50 and older.

According to state officials, the change was implemented as a result of California’s budgetary woes.

“They’re saving money at the cost of the lives of women,” said Murrieta Mayor Randon Lane, who addressed the board. He said his sister Robin was 46 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which is now in remission.

“If you don’t do (screening) until you’re 50, the risks are higher,” Lane said.

Kim Goodnough, executive director of Michelle’s Place, a nonprofit women’s breast cancer resource center, told the board that the state’s policy change will increase the demands on her organization.

“We’re going to see our numbers double,” she said. “We can’t do it alone.”

Stone expressed amazement at the “shortsightedness” of the federal panel’s recommendations. Mammograms and self-exams help younger women identify breast cancer in its earliest stages, when it’s least expensive to treat, he said. The farther along the disease, the greater the hospital and physician costs, Stone said.

“Copies of this resolution should be sent to all cities in Riverside County and all counties (in California) to evaluate and agendize, and hopefully, as a collective body, we can urge the state to reverse this policy,” he said.

Though he supported the resolution, Supervisor Bob Buster wondered about the issues raised by the advisory panel and asked to hear from Dr. Eric Frykman, the county’s health officer, who is expected to address the board next week.

In Sacramento today, Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, joined breast cancer survivors and health advocates in calling on the California Department of Public Health to reverse its directive canceling free breast exams for women 40 to 49.

“We fully understand the tough economic situation our elected leaders face and the difficult choices they must make,” said Donna Sanderson, with the California Collective of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, during the briefing.

“Yet … we should not deny women, who have very few options and limited resources, access to screening and treatment services that may save their life.”