What 40-Somethings Should Know About Breast Cancer
Reprint from New York Times, May 18, 2023
Last week, a panel of U.S. health experts issued a striking update to their guidance on breast cancer screening, urging women who are at average risk for the disease to start getting mammograms every other year starting at age 40, rather than age 50.
The new draft recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force comes as rates of breast cancer are rising in younger women, said Dr. Wendy Chen, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Doctors aren’t entirely sure why those numbers are increasing. The task force also pointed to persistently high mortality rates for breast cancer among Black women in particular.