During a recent family vacation, Danielle Rivera found a cancerous lump in her breast.

The 40-year-old Orcutt resident discovered the lump during a self-examination and she was diagnosed Sept. 4 — a date now firmly etched in her memory.

If Rivera had followed a new set of controversial recommendations regarding breast cancer screening, she may not have discovered the lump. There’s also a slight chance a mammogram would not have detected the mass in 10 years.

The recommendations, released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), say breast self-exams have no significant value and that women under 50 do not need regular mammograms.

When the recommendations were announced Monday, nearly all the women under age 50 with mammogram appointments at Marian Medical Center canceled, according to Dr. Monica Rocco, surgical director of Marian Medical Center’s Cancer Care Services.

By the end of the day, all except for one woman rescheduled, she said.

“The bottom line, from what I can tell, is across the country most physicians are not wavering from the original guidelines,” despite the task force’s conclusions, Rocco said.

The current standard is that women 40 and older should have regular mammograms, an X-ray of the breast used to screen for cancer.

However, the USPSTF, a government panel of doctors and scientists, concluded that early and frequent screenings often lead to false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving women’s odds of survival.

At Marian, there was widespread disagreement with the recommendations, Rocco said.

“Keep doing self-breast exams. What’s the harm in not doing it? A lot of times, people find their own cancers, so there’s no harm in telling them to check their own breasts,” Rocco said.

The American Cancer Society also is strongly opposing the task force guidelines.

In a statement released Monday, the volunteer health organization said, “With its new recommendations, the USPSTF is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them.”

Rivera had no family history of breast cancer, but she is undergoing chemotherapy treatments with all the side effects, and she has to look forward to surgery, followed by two months of radiation.

“It’s a blessing, really,” she said.

Her cancer was caught in the early stages, so her prognosis is very good, and Rivera will be able to be there for her two young daughters, Jessica, 5, and Emily, 2, and her husband, Mike.

“To catch it early, knowing I have young children, that’s the best,” Rivera said. “I would hate to find out I have Stage 4 cancer and a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old daughter.”

She disagreed with the idea that the stress of false alarms would outweigh the benefits of early screening and self-breast exams.

“I think 99.9 percent of women would say they’d rather have three negative breast biopsies than have one missed,” Rocco said.

Cancer survivor Joyce Chrisman, agreed.

More than a decade ago, Chrisman at age 44 got a mammogram at her doctor’s urging because of her family’s history with breast cancer.

“If I hadn’t had a mammogram, I would never have known I had cancer,” Chrisman said, adding that it was unnoticeable with a self-examination.

Cancer is such an indiscriminate disease, “preventive medicine is a heck of a lot better than defensive,” she added. “My daughters never miss their mammogram appointments.”

The American Cancer Society acknowledged the limitations of mammography and the need for more effective screening, but said in a statement that “overwhelmingly ... the benefits of screening women aged 40 to 49 outweigh its limitations.”

So far, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has come out affirming that government policy will not be affected and Medicare will continue covering annual mammograms for women aged 40 and older.

Several elected leaders voiced fears that insurance companies would use the task force guidelines to change mammography coverage, according to the Associated Press.

However, several large insurance companies have said that for now, they will continue to pay for annual mammogram screenings, according to USA Today.

If Rivera had followed the USPSTF recommendations and waited 10 years for her mammogram, she most likely would be facing a traumatic prognosis.

“I was told I was too young, not to worry about it, that I didn’t fit the profile,” Rivera said, adding she later learned, “It can happen to anyone.”