FAIRWAY, Kan. -- There is a new breast cancer battle brewing and this time it's pitting patients and doctors against a new set of guidelines from a government task force.

Local experts and patients told KCTV5 that they fear more lives will be lost than saved because of the new recommendations.

Shirley Weber got the news only months after turning 50 that she had cancer. Her doctor's office called to say that they had spotted something wrong on her mammogram.

"There's nothing more terrifying than getting the news that they need second views," she said.

Had Weber followed the guidelines from the government study, she might not have found the cancer as early as she did.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force no longer recommends routine mammograms for women between the ages of 40 and 49 years old. And the group said that women between 50 and 70 should get a mammogram every other year. They also see little value in self breast exams.

Dr. William Smith is the director of the Breast Imaging Department at the University of Kansas Hospital. He predicts the guidelines could result in a 20 percent drop in survivorship based on similar guidelines that have been put in place in England.

"I'm appalled," he said. "I hope this isn't the tip of the health care cost cutting iceberg. I really don't understand this."

Weber said knowing her cancer could have been growing for two more years before her next screening makes the new recommendations hard to swallow.

"It's chilling," she said. "I'm the breadwinner in my family. I have children, so to get that news is devastating, but to know you caught it early is something you're forever grateful for."

The American Cancer Society has come out against the new guidelines.

The task force argues that getting screened so early and so often leads to false positives, unneeded biopsies and increased exposure to X-rays.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation of Greater Kansas City released a statement on the issue saying, "The statistics don't show the many Missouri and Kansas women alive today due to annual mammography screenings that caught their cancer at an early stage. Early detection saves lives."