New breast cancer screening guidelines recommend mammography screening annually for women beginning at age 40. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) believes that the high incidence of breast cancer combined with the potential to reduce deaths from it when caught early warrants this change from its previous recommendations (every 1-2 years starting at age 40; annually beginning at age 50).
The modification was prompted by (1) the incidence of breast cancer; (2) the sojourn time for breast cancer growth; and (3) the potential to reduce the number of deaths from it, according to Jennifer Griffin, MD, MPH, who co-authored the ACOG guidelines. When it comes to predicting sojourn time, the greatest factor for individual cancers is age. In this case, women aged 40 to 49 years have the shortest average sojourn time (2-2.4 years), while women aged 70 to 74 years have the longest average sojourn time (4-4.1 years). With a shorter window of time between mammograms, women in their 40s have a greater chance of finding and treating breast cancer before it spreads. Furthermore, when breast cancer tumors are discovered at their earliest stage (before they are palpable; when they are small and confined to the breast), the 5-year survival rate for women is 98%.
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