Cancer Society: Mammograms Should Start at 45
Cancer Society: Mammograms Should Start at 45
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The American Cancer Society is delaying the recommended age when a woman should start receiving annual mammograms, based on new research that shows the average risk for breast cancer increases near menopause.
Most women should receive annual mammograms between the ages of 45 and 54, then transition to screening every two years for as long as they remain healthy, according to the new breast cancer screening guidelines.
The guidelines are more conservative than the American Cancer Society's previous approach, which recommended yearly mammograms starting at 40 and continuing as long as a woman is in good health.
The cancer society shifted its guidelines, in part, because it started looking at breast cancer risk in five-year increments, rather than considering women in their 40s versus women in their 50s or 60s, said lead author Dr. Kevin Oeffinger. He is chairman of the American Cancer Society (ACS) breast cancer guideline panel and a family physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
"We found that women who are 45 to 49 are very similar to women 50 to 54 with respect to the burden of cancer, the risk of dying from cancer and the reduction in mortality from mammography," Oeffinger said. "That helped us in our thought process. We felt the evidence is very clear."
The new guidelines are published in the Oct. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
With this announcement, the new cancer society guidelines move closer to those of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which is the nation's leading panel of experts in preventive medicine.
The USPSTF received some criticism back in 2009 when it recommended that most healthy women without increased breast cancer risk wait until age 50 to begin mammography, and then undergo the procedure every other year.
"In some ways they converge a bit more than they did in the past, especially in terms of the ACS pulling back a bit and recommending a slightly later date for mammography screening," said Dr. Lydia Pace, a women's health specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who co-authored an accompanying journal editorial about the new guidelines.
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The American Cancer Society is delaying the recommended age when a woman should start receiving annual mammograms, based on new research that shows the average risk for breast cancer increases near menopause.
Most women should receive annual mammograms between the ages of 45 and 54, then transition to screening every two years for as long as they remain healthy, according to the new breast cancer screening guidelines.
The guidelines are more conservative than the American Cancer Society's previous approach, which recommended yearly mammograms starting at 40 and continuing as long as a woman is in good health.
The cancer society shifted its guidelines, in part, because it started looking at breast cancer risk in five-year increments, rather than considering women in their 40s versus women in their 50s or 60s, said lead author Dr. Kevin Oeffinger. He is chairman of the American Cancer Society (ACS) breast cancer guideline panel and a family physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
"We found that women who are 45 to 49 are very similar to women 50 to 54 with respect to the burden of cancer, the risk of dying from cancer and the reduction in mortality from mammography," Oeffinger said. "That helped us in our thought process. We felt the evidence is very clear."
The new guidelines are published in the Oct. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
With this announcement, the new cancer society guidelines move closer to those of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which is the nation's leading panel of experts in preventive medicine.
The USPSTF received some criticism back in 2009 when it recommended that most healthy women without increased breast cancer risk wait until age 50 to begin mammography, and then undergo the procedure every other year.
"In some ways they converge a bit more than they did in the past, especially in terms of the ACS pulling back a bit and recommending a slightly later date for mammography screening," said Dr. Lydia Pace, a women's health specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who co-authored an accompanying journal editorial about the new guidelines.
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