Women should be screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40 instead of 50, according to draft guidelines released Tuesday by the United States Preventive Services Task Force, the independent national body of experts that sets standards for tests and screenings.
The previous recommendations, last updated in 2016, said women younger than 50 who are concerned could discuss screening with their doctors. Now, the task force says screening at 40 could save 19% more lives.
Experts say the guidelines are a leap in the right direction but should go further to advise women to be screened annually. Several other leading groups have long recommended yearly mammograms starting at age 40.
“Cancers do grow between mammograms,” said Dr. Maxine Jochelson, a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She agreed that beginning screenings at 40 is the “right answer for average risk women.”
Breast cancer makes up nearly 30% of new cancers in U.S. women each year, and it’s estimated that 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in the course of their lives. The median age for diagnosis across all women is 62, but that can vary by racial group.
Breast cancer clinicians have long called for lowering the recommended age for a woman’s first mammogram, especially for Black women, who are more likely to be diagnosed at earlier ages or with aggressive subtypes and are 40% more likely than white women to die of breast cancer.
Black women should be screened for breast cancer earlier than others, study finds
Nearly 1 in 5 Black women with breast cancer are diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a type that grows and spreads more quickly, is difficult to treat and lacks three receptors commonly found in breast cancers that doctors target for treatment.
The task force is “also calling for more research on how best to address health disparities across screening and treatment,” task force member and internist Dr. John Wong, chief of the division of clinical…
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