USPSTF Issues Draft Update on Breast Cancer Screening
Steve Brown, MD, and Vanessa Cardy, MD
- The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a draft recommendation regarding the recommended age for starting mammography for breast cancer screening:
- Mammography screening every other year is recommended in women 40-74 years.
- “Level B” recommendation (moderate net benefit)
- Mammography screening for women over age 75 is not clearly recommended.
- “Level I” – insufficient evidence
- Previous (2016) recommendations:
- Screen every 2 years for those 50-74 years.
- Individualize screening for those 40-49 years.
- New recommendations are based not on new studies or data but rather on new modeling that takes into account more information about patient characteristics (including race and breast density).
- Black women have a 40% higher breast cancer mortality in the United States.
- USPSTF reports that screening Black women at age 40 will not eliminate the inequities they face in accessing breast cancer care.
- There is ongoing debate about whether screening helps to reduce rates of breast cancer mortality.
- Stay tuned to ROP and PCMA for the final version of these recommendations whenever they are released.
REFERENCES:
USPSTF 2016 Recommendations
USPSTF 2023 Draft Recommendations
