Toward More Equitable Breast Cancer Outcomes

In its revised Recommendation Statement, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) now recommends that all women undergo routine breast cancer screening every other year beginning at age 40 years. This is an adjustment from the 2016 recommendation for all women to start at age 50 and for women aged 40 to 49 to engage in individualized decision-making and part of an overarching aim to increase earlier detection of breast cancer and address inequalities in breast cancer mortality, especially among Black women. Additionally, the task force, in acknowledgment of evolving technology, updated the recommended primary screening modalities to include digital breast tomosynthesis (3D mammography). They noted that digital breast tomosynthesis improves the benefit-to-risk ratio compared with digital mammography, primarily by decreasing false-positive results, a well-known screening-related harm.
Source: JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research