A lot of debate is going on in various circles in the US about when women should start with mammograms: at the age of 40 or 50. But there is hardly any discussion on what should be the age to discontinue the precautionary practice against breast cancer, especially when a majority of the American population falls under the aged category.

Last week, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), through its draft breast cancer screening guidelines, suggested increasing the starting mammogram age of women from 40 to 50 years. In the process, the USPSTF chose to ignore the American Cancer Society’s claims that about 25% of women who die of breast cancer were diagnosed in their 40s.

Commenting on the revision in screening age, American Cancer Society specialist Robert Smith said, “There’s a point at which everybody begins to scratch their head and say how much longer do you have to keep doing this?” Smith said raising the age to begin the screening can prove dangerous in the longer run.

Dr. Susan Boolbol, breast surgery chief at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, however, has her own logic to support the age revision: “If we pick up a cancer in someone who’s 75 and they die at 76 of something else, did it really matter? That’s really the question here”.

On till when should women continue with mammograms, the American Cancer Society says the practice should continue till the time women are in good health and have more than a decade of life expectancy on their side.

Data available with the society suggests that mammography rate does witness a downfall as women grow older. About three-quarters of women age 50 to 74 have had a mammogram within two years, compared with 41% of the 85-plus group, according to government figures.