By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - In the latest
installment in the mammogram debate, a new study finds that
getting a mammogram every other year instead of annually did not
increase the risk of advanced breast cancer in women aged 50 to
74, even in women who use hormone therapy or have dense breasts,
factors that increase a woman's cancer risk. The findings,
released on Monday by researchers at the University California,
San Francisco, support the conclusions of the U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force, an influential government panel of health
advisers, which in 2009 issued guidelines that said women should
have mammograms every other year starting at age 50 rather than
annual tests starting at age 40. The controversial
recommendations to reduce the frequency and delay the start of
mammogram screening were based on studies suggesting the
benefits of detecting cancers earlier did not outweigh the risk
of false positive results, which needlessly expose women to the
anguish of a breast cancer diagnosis an