MANKATO — Local physicians and radiologists are clear about a new recommendation suggesting women should wait until age 50 to begin mammograms.

Don’t listen to it.

“For women under 50, it’s like they’re saying, stick your head in the sand, don’t get mammograms and don’t do self exams,” said Dr. Mark Myers, chief of mammography at Mankato Clinic. “They’re dooming many women to late stage cancer diagnosis.”

Dr. Stephen Penkhus, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Mankato Clinic, said the recommendations caught the medical community by surprise and said the guidelines fly in the face of many peer-reviewed large medical studies.

“I think they made the wrong call. They made somewhat of a financial decision,” Penkhus said. “I think women under 50 aren’t worried about their finances so much as they are about having their breast cancer detected.”

Jonathan Hard, a radiologist at Immanuel St. Joseph’s — Mayo Health System in Mankato, said the Mayo System is standing by current recommendations that women begin getting yearly mammograms at age 40, and likely earlier if they have a family history of cancer.

“Our concern with these recommendations is we’d miss cancers in those younger patients that could be treated,” Hard said. “Our stand is that early screening does save lives.”

The recommendations, made by the government-appointed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, say the potential harm of having annual exams beginning at age 40 is greater than the benefits. They cite anxiety among patients, the incidences of false positive mammogram readings and the pain of biopsies that are done on non-cancerous growths as examples of the harm done.

The task force also said exams should be done only every two years for women over 50. And they said doctors should stop teaching self breast exams because they aren’t proven effective.

The panel said women with higher risk of cancer, such as those with a family history, should still follow the current recommendations.

The task force did admit that, if followed, the guidelines would result in more cancer deaths.

The fact more women would die, Myers said, makes the new recommendations ridiculous.

“The (breast) cancer death rate has dropped 30 percent since 1990, because of the advent of mammography. The 50 years before that, without mammography, the death rate was virtually unchanged,” Myers said.

“What they’re saying is they don’t feel the lives saved is warranted by the cost of saving those lives,” said Myers.

He said about one-fourth of all breast cancers are diagnosed in women age 40-49.

Penkhus said the panel had no oncologists as members and fears the guidelines were made with poor, unreviewed science, and based more on cost savings than good medicine.

“It seems this is not based on evidence-based science, but it’s based on philosophical considerations,” Penkhus said.

Said Myers: “It’s hard to draw any conclusion other than that they’re looking at ways to reduce the amount of care.”

Republicans in Congress are charging the panel’s recommendations portend what would happen under government health reform. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said federal guidelines for mammograms will remain unchanged. She said the health secretary, not panels, will make final decisions on any new health recommendations.

The three physicians admit there are false positive readings, biopsies that find no cancer and related stress for those patients. But they say those issues are far outweighed by detecting and treating cancers in women under 50.

And, Hard said, better digital imaging equipment and procedures have greatly reduced uncertainty.

“We’ve largely reduced those issues. We get same-day reports to patients, we go in and talk to them as soon as possible to minimize stress concerns, and with the improved imaging equipment, there are more accurate readings,” Hard said.

And the three doctors said that most women who do need a biopsy that turns out negative are more relieved about the results than stressed about the procedure.

The physicians also strongly disagree that self exams are not useful.

“It’s a no-risk procedure,” Penkhus said. “I can just tell you I’ve had many, many women who’ve come into my office and say they’ve felt a lump and that lump is diagnosed as a cancer.”

The doctors point out that the risk of breast cancer is relatively equal in women 40 to 49 and those 50 and over. And, said Penkhus, there are data indicating cancer in women under 50 is more often more aggressive than in older women.

“I’ve seen an awful lot of women under 50 who’ve been diagnosed with cancer, so I don’t think women are going to want to stop having mammograms or self exams,” Penkhus said.