When should breast cancer screenings start? Black women aren't given a good answer.
Nada Hassanein, USA TODAY
Dr. Ryland Gore, Atlanta-based breast surgical oncologist (Credit: EEW Magazine Online)
More and more, Dr. Ryland Gore has been diagnosing Black women with breast cancer at younger ages.
Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive, fast-growing breast cancer subtypes. The Atlanta-based breast surgical oncologist said that by the time many of her patients reach her, the cancer is advanced.
She worries for her patients and wishes national guidelines would recommend those at high risk like Black women get screened at younger ages.
“When you have these women coming in their 30s – 30, 33, 34 – consistently, over and over and over and over again, it's not a one-off anymore. Something has to be done,” she said.
A recent study assessing breast cancer mortality rates among 415,000 U.S. women suggests Black women should get screened at age 42 when the recommended age is 50 for the general female population.
The researchers calculated that Black women died in their 40s at a rate of 27 deaths per 100,000 patients.
“The current one-size-fits-all policy to screen the entire female population from a certain age may be neither fair and equitable nor optimal," wrote the authors of the analysis, published in JAMA Network Open.
The study has causeda stir among health equity advocates. While many say it’s opening the discussion for earlier screening, some experts and survivors say Black women should be screened even earlier – at age 40 or younger. They want to see a unified approach developed and updates to official guidelines.
"It's time for a different discussion," Gore said. "Why would we wait until the 11th hour knowing that certain groups are at high risk when we can completely change the course of that woman's life?"
There is currently no national consensus about breast cancer screening before age 50, and age recommendations vary from group to group.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force – an independent panel of experts that typically sets national recommendations – is reviewing its guidelines, which were last updated in 2016. Those state women ages 50 to 74 get screened for breast cancer every other year. Those in their 40s who are concerned should make an individual decision with their clinician.
