Canada recommends fewer mammograms

Canadian women will wait 3 years between breast-screening mammograms, according to a new set of breast cancer guidelines released by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (CTFOPHC). They have also been told not to do breast self-exams, and their doctors have been told not to perform breast examinations in the office. The CTFOPHC reasons that regular screening for breast cancer with mammography, breast self-exam, and clinical examinations — all practices that have been widely recommended to reduce breast cancer mortality — causes women too much anxiety, results in too many false positives, and is too costly. The new recommendations were published in the November 22 issue of CMAJ.