Keeping Up - What's New

New Mammogram Guidelines - WCHN Breast Program Recommendation

For women with average risk, the WCHN Breast program will continue to support current recommendations for annual mammograms starting at age 40.

Data used by both the ACS and USPSTF demonstrate that the most lives are saved when women are screened annually starting at age 40. The new ACS guidelines give women at average risk the option of beginning screening at age 45 and spacing out to biennial screening after age 55.

When considering breast cancer screening, we encourage every woman to have a discussion with her health care providers to review risk and benefits as well as personal preferences in order to create the best timeline for their screening.

Guideline summary:

• Annual Screening for women ages 45-54 (new ACS guidelines)
• Annual or Biennial screening for women 55 and older based on a shared decision making discussion regarding risk and benefits of screening timing(ACS; ASBrS),  Annual screening yearly mammograms are recommended starting at age 40 and continuing for as long as a woman is in good health (ACR,ABI,ACOG)
• Biennial screening for women over the age of 75 if an estimated life expectancy is greater than 10 years (ACS; ASBrS)
• Breast tomography may be considered for screening
• Early data shows promise in higher sensitivity rates and specificity rates
• May increase detection rates and decrease false positive rates especially in women with dense breast tissue
• Data from large randomized clinical trials is pending

For more information contact jean.huntington@wchn.org

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