Feds rally behind mammography. (U.S. Preventive Services Task Force).

WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials have rallied to defend mammography amid renewed controversy over its value for breast cancer screening.

In a move aimed at reassuring physicians and patients, the federal government announced last month that it was expanding its previous recommendations by calling for screening mammography every 1-2 years for women aged 40 and older.

In updating its 1996 recommendations, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for the first time joined the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and other major medical organizations in recommending that women in their 40s undergo screening mammography.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said at a press briefing that the recent atmosphere of uncertainty about mammography prompted federal officials to release the new USPSTF recommendations on mammography, which have been in development since 1998.

"Mammography is an important and effective early detection tool that does help to save lives," Mr. Thompson said. "We want women to understand this point very clearly."

The utility of screening mammography was called into question last fall by a Cochrane Collaboration review that reexamined seven favorable randomized, controlled trials. Researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen-one of 15 centers involved in the Cochrane effort to systematically review research findings-concluded that the studies were flawed and did not show that mammography reduced total mortality (Lancet 358[9290]:1340-42, 2001).

The controversy was stirred further by recent deliberations of the NCI's Physician Data Query Screening and Prevention Editorial Board, an independent panel that maintains the institute's cancer database. The PDQ panel, which does not make practice recommendations, concluded that it is possible that mammography screening confers no benefit in terms of reducing all-cause mortality.