(SIOUX CITY, IA) Controversial new recommendations say women should get mammograms starting at age 50. But some local breast screening centers say 50 is not the new 40 when it comes to mammograms.

New recommendations from the US Preventive Services Task Force released this week say women 40 to 49 years old do not need routine mammograms. But if breast cancer survivor Patty Limoges had waited until 50, she says she wouldn't be alive today.

"I went in for a routine screening at age 44 and looked at the films when they came out of the processor and was shocked," says Patty Limoges, breast cancer survivor and mammographer at Mercy Medical Clinic in South Sioux City.

Patty has also worked as a mammographer for the past decade, giving her even more insight into breast cancer screening and prevention.

"By the time you reach 40, one in 227 women will have been diagnosed with breast cancer," says Limoges.

"In 2006, 17% of breast cancers were found in women 40-49 by mammograms," says Cheryl Michalsky, St. Luke's Imaging and Breast Screening Center Manager.    

It's statistics like these that hit especially close to home at the St. Luke's Imaging and Breast Screening Center.    

"What's going to happen 10 years down the road, the prevention is gone away, and then we're going to find these cancers at a later stage," says Michalsky.

St. Luke's says early detection is key to surviving breast cancer.
            
"The earlier the better. The prognosis is much better if you find it at an earlier stage," says Michalsky.

Many local mammographers will not be changing their recommendations.

"Whether you have a family history or not, starting at age 40 and getting them every year is the right thing to do," says Limoges.

The American Cancer Society continues to recommend annual mammograms starting at 40. You can read the full ACS response to the USPSTF recommendations at: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_2_1x_American_Cancer_Society_Responds_to_Changes_to_USPSTF_Mammography_Guidelines.asp.

St. Luke's Imaging and Breast Screening Center will follow those guidelines.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure will not change its screening policy at this time. To read its response, go to: http://ww5.komen.org/ContentSimpleLeft.aspx?id=6442451488&itc=lefthpban:80.

For the complete USPSTF recommendation statement, check out: http://www.annals.org/content/151/10/716.full.

Reported by Erika Thomas. You can contact her at ethomas@kmeg.com.