I’ve been in England this week, with intermittent access to the Internet. So I’ve missed the flurry of “clarifications” issued by the American Cancer Society (ACS) during the past 48 hours in response to a New York Times report that the ACS would be revising its website to suggest the benefits of certain types of cancer screenings may have been overstated.

I figured that article (which I posted about on Wednesday) would cause a firestorm. And it has.

The ACS issued a quick response, which stated its current recommendations regarding breast and prostate cancer still stand. (The ACS recommends that women aged 40 and older should have annual mammograms and that younger women at high risk should talk with their physicians about when they should begin screening. Its recommendations for prostate cancer are that men should talk with their physicians to determine if early screening is right for them).

And here’s Len Lichtenfeld, MD, the society’s deputy chief medical officer, who seems to be outright denying what was reported in the Times:

The ACS is always reviewing and reevaluating its screening guidelines, he adds.

I could be wrong, but I sense that something bigger than the usual "annual update" of screening guidelines is happening at ACS — and throughout the rest of the medical community. Attitudes toward screening seem to be undergoing a major (and long overdue) risks-vs.-benefits paradigm shift.

For people who like simple, black-and-white options regarding their medical care, these changes are going to be very disconcerting.

But as as Otis Brawley, MD, the society’s chief medical officer (and the ACS expert quoted in the Times article), emphasized in an interview with National Public Radio this week, “simple messages [about screening] are not always possible.”

Here’s an excerpt of what he said: