The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently lowered the recommended starting age of mammogram screenings to 40 instead of 50. It also suggested screenings continue every other year for average-risk women until age 74.
This change is due to a rise in breast cancer diagnoses among women in their 40s. “There was a “2% per-year increase from 2015 to 2019,” John Wong, one of the task force members, told Stat News.
The new guidelines are estimated to save an additional 1.3 lives per 1,000 women screened and potentially reduce racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes. The change will have a greater impact on Black women, who face higher risks of mortality and morbidity.
The changes bring USPSTF’s recommendations closer in line with those of the American Cancer Society and other major health groups. The task force’s recommendations tend to hold more sway because insurance is required to cover them under the Affordable Care Act.
