Washington, May 9 (EFE).- Women should start getting mammograms from the age of 40, as recommended on Tuesday by the influential US Preventive Services Task Force, leaving behind its old advice to start them at the age of 50.
The new recommendations indicate that women between the ages of 40 and 74 should have mammograms every two years for the diagnosis of breast cancer, the second most common in the United States.
Going from 50 to 40 years could result in 19% more lives saved, defends this independent panel of experts, which usually issues preventive health recommendations that are often adopted throughout the country.
“New and more inclusive science on breast cancer in people under age 50 has allowed us to expand our previous recommendation and encourage all women to be screened every two years starting at age 40,” she said in in a statement the chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, Carol Mangione.
According to this group, black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.
In this sense, the vice-chair of the Task Force, Wanda Nicholson, warned that “ensuring that black women start undergoing screening tests at age 40 is an important first step, but it is not enough to improve health inequalities” .
Nicholson also urged “more research on how to improve the health of black women.”
The Task Force also urged to study whether women with denser breasts should undergo additional procedures such as MRIs, taking into account the benefits and harms on women older than 75.
