11/17/2009 - Hologic Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX) shares fell 3.2% after the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that women wait until they turn 50 before having mammograms, and have the breast examinations less often, according to an AP report. The government task force suggested that women have an examination every two years instead of once a year and start when they turn 50 rather than when they turn 40 because benefits of earlier testing are minimal compared to the risk of false alarms and the damage from biopsies. The task force added that the benefits for women over 75 are unclear when it had previously said that those women should a mammogram every year or two. The report included that an analyst with Soleil Securities, Junaid Husain, said it was too soon to know what effect the guidelines might have but said, "Worst-case scenario assuming these two recommendations are taken at face value we could see mammographic procedure volumes reduced from current 37.2 million to 15.6 million," per year, which is a drop of 58%.

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