Annual screening mammography should begin at age 40 and even earlier for women at high risk for breast cancer, according to recommendations from the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the Society of Breast Imaging (SBI). Average-risk women should begin annual breast cancer screening at age 40, and higher-risk women should begin by age 30, but no sooner than 25, the ACR and SBI recommend in guidelines published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
"Evidence to support the recommendation for regular periodic screening mammography comes from the results of several randomized trials conducted in Europe and North America that included a total of nearly 500,000 women," Carol H. Lee, MD, chair of the ACR Breast Imaging Commission, said in a statement. "The significant decrease in breast cancer mortality, which amounts to nearly 30% since 1990, is a major medical success and is due largely to earlier detection of breast cancer through mammography screening," added Lee, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The recommendations conflict with those issued late last year by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which suggested that routine screening begin at age 50. Continue at MedPage Today.