Texas Tech's Breast Center of Excellence disagrees with the American Cancer Society’s latest breast cancer screening guidelines. It is telling women across the Panhandle to not follow them. The American Cancer Society released new guidelines earlier this week.

The guidelines suggested that women at ‘average risk’ of breast cancer must start annual mammograms at 45, which is 5 years later than earlier recommended. According to local doctors, the delay of 5 years may have serious implications for women in the Panhandle.

The Breast Center of Excellence is already struggling in convincing area women to get annual mammograms done. Dr. Rakhshanda Rahman, the center's director, said that the women are scared, they don’t have money and they want to avoid travelling. She said that women have a variety of other reasons.

Dr. Rahman added, “They delay their screenings and we see a lot of late cancers especially in this part of the world. The last thing I want is those women to have yet another excuse to not get a mammogram done”.

Dr. Kevin Oeffinger of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York was the head of the panel for the latest guidelines. Dr. Oeffinger said that from the age of 45 on, they felt that annual mammography gave them their best chance, both in the terms of cutting premature mortality and balancing out the potential danger linked to mammography.

However, according to Dr. Rahman the guidelines have come up with no real science. The doctor said that she won’t be following them. She added that she doesn’t have any reason to say why is 45 is better than 40 or 50, and that there is no science to support that.