Mammogram Moratorium

Responding to recent warnings that breast X rays, or mammograms, may be contributing, however slightly, to the incidence of breast cancer (TIME, Aug. 2), health officials last week issued new guidelines for their use in a breast-cancer screening program in 27 centers for women 35 years and over.

Until now, the 270,000 participants in the demonstration project--a joint effort of the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society--automatically received annual mammograms, along with a manual examination of the breasts and thermograms (tumor-detecting heat pictures). But under the new policy, mammograms will be restricted, until further studies are completed, to women 50 and above--an age group known to have profited from them--and others who have a greater than ordinary risk of breast cancer: women who have a family history of the disease, have lumps or pains in their chests or have reached age 30 before having children.

In the case of younger, totally symptom-free women, says Dr. Diane Fink, NCI's director of cancer control and rehabilitation, "the whole question will have to be looked at on an individual basis by the woman and her physician."

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