In major shift, new guidelines scale back breast cancer screenings for younger women

New guidelines for mammograms released Tuesday by the American Cancer Society represent a major shift from the aggressive early and universal screenings that have been standard practice in the United States for nearly two decades.

The changes, which include recommending that the testing be started later and conducted less frequently, are a recognition of the growing concern that the benefits of mammograms may have been oversold as well as the anxiety and burden to the health care system caused by overdiagnosis and false positives from the tests.