The age range

There has been the on going controversy on when to start annual mammograms for all women - is it 40? Is it 50? Many go with age 40 but some don't. And its another debate.

But there is the other end of the scale - when to stop yearly mammograms. Breast cancer becomes more common in women as we age. The older you are the more likely you are to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Its a known fact. But when do we stop screening women for breast cancer? (There is the same conversation about colonoscopies on when is too old.) Currently the advice is stop at age 75.

Seriously. I had never really known this. As we age, we become less healthy and less able to tolerate cancer treatment. Its pretty nasty.

A friend's great aunt was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 98. She was too fragile to stand treatment. My aunt was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer at age 76. She had a lumpectomy, radiation and is on an aromatase inhibitor (I'm not sure which one). If she was younger, they might have recommended chemotherapy.

Another side of this issue is the increasing costs on medicare for continued mammograms for women over 75. Yale did a recent study on this. Part of the increase is due to the switch from the cheaper older film mammograms to the new digital ones (from $73 to $115). But also the continued mammograms after age 75.

One side says the stress and anxiety for older women along with the costs are reasons enough for stopping them.

""Clinicians and patients need to start thinking about the bang they are getting for their buck," said Dr. Anees Chagpar, director of the Breast Center – Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, and a co-author of the study. "We must be cognizant of our use of technology and healthcare dollars."

"Our country and health system have finally recognized that this aggressive and dramatic rise in health care costs is not sustainable," said Dr. Cary Gross, director of the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research Center at Yale Cancer Center and one of the study's lead authors. "We need to make choices about how to prioritize our healthcare spending.""


The other side says that as long as women are healthy, they should continue to have them.

""Women should get an annual mammogram as long as they are healthy, and age should not be the discriminator," said Gruen. "Breast cancer is the enemy. We should not politicize things (such as screening mammography) that have been shown to save lives.""

So the age range for mammograms is somewhere around 40-75. If you get breast cancer before age 40 and after age 75, you may be SOL. Let's take the politics out of this and stop 'prioritizing' crap and look at the health of women as the real concern.