| In the wake of highly controversial and contested new recommendations to women on when in their lives they should have mammograms, Congressman Frank Pallone is convening a hearing to examine the issue.
The hearing begins in a few minutes, at 10am. You can watch it live streamed here.
The recommendations, released last month by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, urge women with average breast cancer risk should begin screening for tumors at 50, not at 40. The study also advised women ages 50-74 need screening only every two years as opposed to annually, and that women over 75 can skip the test altogether.
The federal recommendations - a sharp departure from medical orthodoxy - produced immediate reactions, from women flooding into their doctors' offices demanding an opinion, to charges that this was the government getting ready to ration care and kill off older women. Well, there's no accounting for Fox News.
Pallone chairs the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. |
