Determining the impact of the U.S. mammography screening guidelines on patient survival in a predominantly African American population treated in a public hospital.

1573 Background: In November 2009, the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) published an updated set of breast cancer screening guidelines. This was a change from the 2002 recommendation and represents a marked divergence from the American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines. In this study we compared the effect of the revised USPSTF with the ACS guidelines on patient stage and survival. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 84 patients (pts) diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer was performed for 2008 in a public hospital. We excluded stages 0 and IV pts due to restriction of the staging model. Using known tumor volume doubling times, we estimated prospective and retrospective tumor sizes based on ACS and USPSTF guidelines. Stages were assigned and pt survival rates were estimated based on prognostic stages. Results: Study pts averaged 55 years old and 85% of pts were African American (AA). Almost half (49%) had Medicaid coverage, 23% had Medicare coverage, 19% were self-pay, and 8% had private insur...