The task panel recommends that women start screening for breast cancer at this time and receive mammograms.

 

Women should start getting mammograms at age 40 and should get screened for breast cancer every other year until they are 74, according to a well-known task force.

According to revised recommendations announced on Tuesday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, women with an average risk of breast cancer should start screening at age 40 instead of 50. According to research cited by the task group, screening breast tissue every other year offers women up to the age of 74 a "moderate net benefit" in terms of medical evidence.

In its previous recommendations, the task group advised women in their 40s to discuss their options with their physicians.

Insufficient evidence, according to the task panel, supports routine screening for women 75 years of age and above. Furthermore, it disapproved of additional screening techniques.

Task Force recommendations initiate insurance protection

Insurance companies are required by the Affordable Care Act to pay for preventive care if the Preventive Services Task Force, an impartial advisory group that assesses medical procedures, therapies, and services, grades it a "A" or "B."

The task group gave screening mammography for women with an average risk age of 40 to 74 a "B" rating. Women at higher risk who have been diagnosed with breast cancer or those with genetic variations like BRCA1 or BRCA2 are exempt from the screening advice.

After reviewing numerous extensive medical research, the task committee came to the conclusion that the "net benefits" of doing this kind of screening every two years exceeded the hazards, which can include radiation exposure, needless biopsies, and anxiety-inducing false positives. For a mammogram, X-ray technology is needed.

Breast cancer is the second most deadly type of cancer among women, although disparities still exist.

The second most prevalent and second deadly type of cancer among women is breast cancer. An estimated 43,170 people lost their lives to breast cancer in 2023. Breast cancer rates are higher among White women. Black women are 40% more likely than White women to die from breast cancer, making them the group with the greatest death rate from the disease.

There are notable differences in access to follow-up care and therapy, according to a research paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, that outlines the task force's recommendations. A self-reported mammography screening rate "similar to or higher than that for all women" was reported by Black women in the study, but differences in follow-up and treatment following screening mammograms were also identified.

According to the study, the rate of triple-negative cancer in black women was double that of white women. Triple-negative cancer is a more severe form of breast cancer that is detected at a later stage.

The task committee stated that equal follow-up examinations and testing, together with any required biopsies and treatment, are crucial for reducing disparities in the case of anyone identified with an abnormal mammogram.

None for women 75 years of age and above

The task force's suggestion, according to Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society, sends a "strong message to referring physicians and women that breast cancer screening should begin earlier than age 50."

However, the task force's recommendation against screening women 75 years of age and older disappointed Knudsen.

"Millions of women over age 75 are in very good health and are expected to live many more years during which their risk of breast cancer remains high," Knudsen stated. "Does not support stopping screening for anyone with a 10-plus year life expectancy irrespective of age," the spokesperson stated on behalf of the American Cancer Society.

According to Douglas Marks, a medical oncologist at NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Centre in New York City, lowering the screening age to 40 is in line with suggestions made by the American College of Radiology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

He added that after the task committee recommended in 2016 that routine screening for women start at age 50, the draft report from last year indicated the shift to screening women ten years younger.

Additionally, the updated guidelines state that 3D and digital mammograms are equally useful screening tools. Although Marks pointed out that a study indicated MRIs might detect breast tumours early and avoid more advanced cancer, the task force stated there was insufficient data to persuade it to support or oppose additional MRI screening.

"We have to pay attention to these other technologies and how they may be able to at least slightly enhance our ability to screen patients," Marks stated.

Is it better to get mammograms every year?

Wendie A. Berg, a radiology professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, stated that yearly screenings would save more lives in an editorial that was published in JAMA with the task force's screening recommendations.

Berg said that although the task force's proposals are a "significant step forward, they stop short." "Annual mammography is as efficient as biennial mammography but with greater overall gains in years of life saved."