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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Peter Greenwald

Aired February 23, 2002 - 07:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. government is trying to take some confusion out of the debate about mammograms. Yesterday, the Health and Human Services Department endorsed the need for the breast cancer screening, and it reduced the age it recommends women begin getting mammograms from 50 to 40. The recommendations become official U.S. policy.

Dr. Peter Greenwald of the National Cancer Institute joins me from Washington to talk about this this morning -- Dr. Greenwald, hello.

DR. PETER GREENWALD, NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE: Good morning.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the confusion here about the effectiveness of mammograms. What is the controversy? Let's lay it out.

GREENWALD: Early detection is an important part of cancer control. Experts agree that mammography detects cancer when it's early and smaller, detects more cancer and gives more options for treatment. In the long run, a number of clinical trials have shown that mammography also saves lives.

A critique in a journal from Britain several months ago raised questions about the quality of these trials. However, the National Cancer Institute has seriously looked at this critique and feels that the people doing it were incorrect -- that mammography does save lives.

PHILLIPS: So how do the numbers match up? For example, the risks of mammograms outweighing the benefits -- the critics talk about this -- vs. the number of lives that have been saved. Which is higher?

GREENWALD: The benefits are very clear. As a woman gets older, the risk of breast cancer gets higher and higher. So as you get up beyond age 50, there is a very clear and strong benefit. For women in their 40s, there is some benefit, but there also are problems of false positive tests, because the breasts are more dense. So in that age group, women might want to discuss with her doctor the pros and cons.

At the National Cancer Institute, we recommend mammograms for women every one to two years beginning in their 40s. PHILLIPS: Yes, what do you do about these false positives? Because I was reading and understanding that surgeries have been done that were unwarranted, a lot of anxiety has been created for women. That's got to be a tough position to be in.

GREENWALD: Recently, there have been improvements in the technique of biopsy, where a needle can put exactly where the mass is. This reduces the time between when there is a suspicious lesion, and when it's diagnosed for sure. That is where physicians might have waited three or six months. They now biopsy right away. And this does cut down on the anxiety, and it also provides an earlier answer.

PHILLIPS: So, Dr. Greenwald, is this the only detection tool out there? Is this the best one right now?

GREENWALD: Mammography is the best tool we have today. We are doing research on potentially better techniques for the future. One of them is called digital mammography, where the image is put on a computer. With that, you can reduce the chance of a false positive test.

PHILLIPS: Wow! How far away are we from seeing this type of digital procedure or test?

GREENWALD: Right now, there is a clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, where 49,000 women are getting regular mammograms plus digital mammograms. It will be about three years before we have the answer.

PHILLIPS: Dr. Peter Greenwald of the National Cancer Institute, thank you so much for talking about this change in guidelines, getting those mammograms at 40 instead of 50 -- thank you so much.

GREENWALD: Thank you.

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