A new government panel is going to take yet another crack at clarifying the issue of whether women in their 40s should have regular mammograms.
Last month, the National Cancer Advisory Board, a panel of 18 experts appointed by the president to make recommendations to the National Cancer Institute, met to discuss the preliminary report from last month's consensus development conference on breast cancer screening guidelines for women ages 40 to 49.
After two hours of presentations and discussion, the head of the board, Barbara Rimer of Duke University, said a subgroup of the advisory board will meet and, within several months, try to come up with recommendations on if nd when women in their 40s should get regular mammograms. The head of the NCI, Dr. Richard Klausner, has said NCI will abide by whatever recommendations the board makes.
Last month, the consensus panel, a group of outside experts picked by NCI and other agencies at the National Institutes of Health, created a stir when its preliminary statement did not recommend routine screening for women under 50 despite new data from studies that appeared to show some benefit in regular mammograms for women in this age group. Earlier studies have found no benefit. (NCI, 301/897-9100)