A major public health agency last week expanded its breast cancer screening guidelines to include younger women – but some people are concerned that a key age group has been excluded.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced April 30 that women ages 40 to 74 should get a mammogram every two years.
This is a significant change from previous guidelines, which said women should start biennial mammograms at age 50, but could choose to start as early as age 40.
MAMMOGRAM SCREENINGS FOR BREAST CANCER SHOULD START AT AGE 40 INSTEAD OF 50, HEALTH TASK FORCE SAYS
Some experts object to the agency’s failure to include official screening recommendations for women over 74.
“The USPSTF concludes that current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening mammography in women. 75 years or older” the agency said in the guidance.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced April 30 that women ages 40 to 74 should get a mammogram every two years. (iStock)
Dr. Denise Pate, medical director of Manhattan Medical Offices and LabFinder contributor, disagreed with the lack of mammogram recommendations for older women.
“I think it’s an outdated view that sells short the potential of women over 75,” she told Fox News Digital.
SOME BREAST CANCER PATIENTS MAY BE AT RISK FOR ANOTHER TYPE OF CANCER, STUDY REVEALS
“The recommendations consider that the elderly population may be overdiagnosed, potentially with slow growth breast cancers – but that doesn’t take into account the increasing life expectancy of American women. »
A woman who is currently 75 years old has a life expectancy of 87 years, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Lack of research
One of the main reasons why women over 74 were excluded is because this age group was not included in clinical trials.
“When the major randomized controlled trials “were performed in the 1970s and 1980s to show the effectiveness of mammograms, but they did not include enough women in these age groups to confirm their necessity,” Dr. Jacqueline Holt, medical director of imaging for national radiology provider RadNet in Wilmington, Delaware. , told Fox News Digital.
One of the main reasons why women over 74 were excluded is because this age group was not included in clinical trials. (iStock)
“The risk of cancer does not decrease at age 74: the risk increases,” she said.
“It’s misinformation that cancers grow more slowly in this age group and that women will die of something else first.”
Risks and benefits
The main risk observed when screening older women is the risk of false positives.
“The potential harms of breast cancer screening older women include false-positive results and overdiagnosis,” said a study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
“Cancer risk does not decrease at age 74 – risk increases.”
Among women aged 75 and over, 200 out of…
