Mammograms should start at age 40, says US task force

WOMEN should be offered mammograms from the age of 40, US officials have been told, in a move that would start breast cancer screening in the country a decade earlier than the NHS.

Draft recommendations from the US preventive services task force released today says all women should be screened every two years starting at the age of 40.

“The Task Force now recommends that all women get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40,” the US PSTF states.

“We’re also urgently calling for more research on whether additional screening with breast ultrasound or MRI for women with dense breasts is beneficial, and on the benefits and harms of screening in women older than 75.”

The decision to lower the age of initial mammogram screening down to 40 from 50 years old follows an independent review by the health body.

Previously, women in their 40s were encouraged to have a conversation with their health care provider about their own situation, before screening was recommended across the board at 50.

However, the new review moves the age down to 40 for all women.

Mathematical models run by the organisation looked at the benefits of screening 1,000 40-year-old women who are at average risk.

“Screening biennially at ages 50-74 resulted in about seven breast cancer deaths averted over the lifetimes of 1,000 female persons screened compared to no screening,” the draft report states. “One additional death was averted if the starting age was 40.”

‘Screening biennially at ages 50-74 resulted in seven breast cancer deaths averted in 1,000 females’

Dr Carol Mangione, a former chairman of the US PSTF and an internal medicine doctor at UCLA, said: “New and more inclusive science about breast cancer in women younger than 50 has allowed us to expand our prior recommendation.”

The NHS invites women aged 50 to 70 for screening every three years. women over 70 can continue to get them but are not automatically invited.

Cancer Research UK’S website says there is “little evidence” that lowering mammogram screening age would reduce breast cancer deaths.