The 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Guidelines Ignore Important Scientific Evidence and Should Be Revised or Withdrawn

The 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Guidelines Ignore Important Scientific Evidence and Should Be Revised or Withdrawn
Daniel B. Kopans
Radiology 2010;256 15-20

Link to Journal

The task force should know that their guidelines, and not revisionist statements, will be used to dissuade, if not prevent, women from undergoing mammographic screening

The USPSTF comprised individuals who had no direct expertise in mammographic screening. The members chosen to review mammographic screening are, by charter, “internists, pediatricians, family physicians, gynecologists/obstetricians, and nurses”. 

Based on the oversights listed above, it seems to me that they did not understand the fundamentals of the randomized controlled trials of screening. They ignored direct data from screened populations in favor of computer models that were selected for them and decided to deprive women of access to screening because the task force decided that the anxiety caused by a recall from screening (most of which are easily resolved by extra mammographic views or US) was too much for women to tolerate

Breast Cancer Screening: From Science to Recommendation

Breast Cancer Screening: From Science to Recommendation
Diana B. Petitti, Ned Calonge, Michael L. LeFevre, Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, Timothy J. Wilt, J. Sanford Schwartz for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
Radiology 2010;256 8-14

Link to Journal

Further progress in reducing breast cancer morbidity and mortality will require a better understanding of methods for primary prevention, more effective therapy, and improved diagnostic tests that reduce false-positives and identify women with lesions likely to benefit from intervention


This is a response by the US Preventative Services Task Force to some of the criticisms leveled at their recent published guidelines (particularly the under 50's). Dan Kopans robust reply follows