The Herald Bulletin

November 28, 2009

Letter: Mammogram opinion is alarming


The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (appointed by the government) cited evidence that the potential harm to women having actual exams beginning at age 40 outweighs the benefits. The American Cancer Society and the American College of Radiology argued that mammograms after 40 play a key role in reducing mastectomies and the death toll from one of the most common cancers. Daniel Kopans, a radiology professor at Harvard Medical School, said, “Tens of thousands of lives are being saved by mammography screening.” Who do you want controlling your life-or-death decisions, you and your doctors or government bureaucrats?

I listened to the talk show on WIBC-FM on Nov. 17. Dozens of women called or e-mailed the show describing mammograms that discovered cancer in their 30s and 40s that saved their lives. How can the government deny these women mammograms that can save their lives? You citizens of the United States of America should not allow this to happen to your mothers and daughters.

The U.S. Preventative Service Task Force says that only one in 1,900 women in their 40s would die from breast cancer without mammogram screening. This is approximately 50,000 women in the United States. Are you willing for your loved one to be one of these 50,000 women? Please help stop this health care insanity.

You seniors on Medicare will be denied health care just like the mammogram recommendation.

Robert Marsh

Anderson