Mammograms are recommended for women starting at age 40, not 50.
WASHINGTON — A draft recommendation from a federal task group says that women should start getting mammograms every other year at age 40 instead of waiting until they are 50.
Breast cancer screening is optional for women starting at age 40, but the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force strongly recommends that women 50 to 74 have X-ray screenings every two years.
If the revised proposal to be unveiled on Tuesday is adopted as written, it will represent a significant departure from previous recommendations by the important panel. While some groups may agree on the frequency of screening, others may disagree.
This new recommendation will help save lives and prevent more women from dying due to breast cancer,” said Dr. Carol Mangione, who served as the former chair of the task committee.
The task committee highlighted the need of mammograms at age 40 and pointed out that Black women have a 40% higher risk of dying from breast cancer than white women. However, they also advocated greater research to better understand and battle this gap.
The task group also urged for more research to see whether other methods of testing would be beneficial because roughly half of all women have thick breasts, which may make mammograms less effective.
Women at ordinary risk of breast cancer are covered by the proposed suggestion, but those with very high risk due to certain hereditary or other factors are not. The task team will decide whether to finalize it after receiving public comments through June 5th.
Despite the fact that cancer mortality have been on the decline for some time, lung cancer still claims the lives of more American women than breast cancer.
Aiming to strike a compromise between finding breast cancer early and avoiding too many false alarms when the X-rays spot non-cancerous blips, health organizations have long had various screening guidelines.
According to the American Cancer Society, mammograms are recommended for women between the ages of 45 and 54 every year, though they can start at 40 and move to every other year at 55.
The American College of Radiology urges young women to get examined for risk factors that warrant even earlier screening before recommending annual mammograms starting at age 40 for women at average risk of breast cancer.