PLATTSBURGH — Officials from the region’s biggest mammography clinic will stay on course with their recommendations for regular exams despite a recent report that suggests changes.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government-appointed medical panel that analyzes information from various fields of medicine, released recommendations last week that suggest women ages 40 to 49 do not need annual mammogram screening for breast cancer.

“We went through this 10 years ago,” said Plattsburgh radiologist Dr. Curt Snyder, noting that the distant debate on mammograms for that age group clearly showed the procedure was significant in helping to reduce mortality rates connected to breast cancer.

“We’ve seen an 20-to-25-percent decrease in overall mortality rates since 1990. If you have advanced breast cancer, you can control it, but you can’t cure it. The only way to cure breast cancer is to find it early.”

He noted that the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute didn’t change their recommendations and still say women in their 40s should be screened.

“That is what we believe, as well,” he said.

CVPH SCREENS 16,000

The CVPH Medical Center Women’s Imaging Center averages 50 mammograms per day and screens around 16,000 women for breast cancer annually.

“Over 60 percent of women who develop breast cancer do not have a family history,” Snyder said. “If we exclude people with average risk (of developing breast cancer), we will miss over half of the cases.”

Regionally, 102 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Snyder noted. Of those, 24 were under the age of 50, and 70 percent of the cases were diagnosed through annual mammograms.

ESTABLISH RECORD

One of the concerns highlighted by the task force is the possibility of over-diagnosing breast cancer and the added anxiety that puts on women who do not have cancer following a positive diagnosis.

But changing the recommendations to 50 will only shift that increased number of false positives, Snyder noted.