A USA Today/Gallup Poll shows why a vast majority of women plan to ignore the new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force about mammograms for women aged forty to forty-nine. USA Today reports: "Seventy-six percent of women said they believe that the panel based its conclusions on cost, even though the task force's report included only scientific studies. Women also perceive their breast cancer risk to be higher than it really is. Forty percent of women estimate that a forty-year-old's chance of developing breast cancer over the next decade is 20 percent to 50 percent. The real risk is 1.4 percent, according to the National Cancer Institute."
"It's understandable that these women are so doubtful and fearful," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "We hear so much about breast cancer all the time, and women are very fearful of this disease, so of course the actual risk for women in that age group is overstated."
