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Breast Guidelines for Women

International American U.S. Preventive American College of American Cancer Agency for American College American College of Academy of Services Task Obstetricians and Society3 Research on of Radiology8,9 Physicians10 Family Force1,2 Gynecologists4,5,6 Cancer7 Physicians11 Women The decision to start Women aged 40 to 44 After counseling and if an There is limited Screening with Clinicians should discuss The decision to start aged 40 to screening with years should have the individual desires screening, evidence that screening is whether to screen for screening with 49 years mammography in choice to start mammography may be with mammography recommended once a with mammography with women prior to age 50 once a offered once a year or once reduces breast cancer year. mammography before should be an average risk years should be an year with every two years and clinical mortality in women 40- age 50 years. Discussion individual one. individual one. Women mammography if they breast exams may be 49 years of age. should include the Women who place a who place a higher value wish to do so. The risks offered once a year. potential benefits and higher value on the on the potential benefit of screening as well as Decisions between harms and a woman’s potential benefit than than the potential harms the potential benefits screening with preferences. The the potential harms may choose to begin should be considered. mammography once a year potential harms may choose to begin screening once every Women aged 45 to 49 or once every two years outweigh the benefits in screening. two years between the years should be should be made through most women aged 40 to ages of 40 and 49 years. screened with shared decision-making 49 years. mammography annually. after appropriate counseling. Women Screening with Women aged 50 to 54 Screening with There is sufficient Screening with Clinicians should offer Screening with aged 50 to mammography once years should be mammography is evidence that screening mammography is screening with mammography is 74 years every two years is screened with recommended once a year with mammography recommended once a mammography once recommended once with recommended. mammography annually. or once every two years. reduces breast-cancer year. every two years. every two years. average risk For women aged 55 Decisions between mortality to an extent The evidence is In average-risk women Current evidence is years and older, screening with that its benefits insufficient to assess the of all ages, clinicians insufficient to assess screening with mammography once a year substantially outweigh additional benefits and should not use clinical the benefits and mammography is or once every two years the risk of - harms of clinical breast breast examination to harms of clinical recommended once should be made through induced cancer from examination. screen for breast cancer. breast exams. every two years or once shared decision-making mammography. a year. Women aged 55 after appropriate There is inadequate years and older should counseling. evidence that clinical transition to biennial Clinical breast exams may breast examination screening or have the be offered annually. reduces breast cancer opportunity to continue mortality. There is screening annually. Clinical breast exams should sufficient evidence that be offered in the context of Among average risk clinical breast a shared, informed decision- women, clinical breast examination shifts the making approach that examination to screen stage distribution of recognizes the uncertainty for breast cancer is not tumors detected of additional benefits and recommended. toward a lower stage. harms of clinical breast examination beyond screening mammography. International American U.S. Preventive American College of American Cancer Agency for American College American College of Academy of Services Task Obstetricians and Society3 Research on of Radiology8,9 Physicians10 Family Force1,2 Gynecologists4,5,6 Cancer7 Physicians11 Women Current evidence is Women should continue The decision to stop Not addressed. The age to stop In average-risk women Current evidence is aged 75 insufficient to assess the screening with screening should be based screening with aged 75 years or older insufficient to assess years or balance of benefits and mammography as long on a shared decision-making mammography or in women with a life the balance of older with harms of screening as their overall is process. The decision- should be based on expectancy of 10 years benefits and harms of average risk mammography in good and they have a making process should each woman’s health or less, clinicians should screening with women aged 75 years or life expectancy of 10 include a discussion of the status rather than an discontinue screening mammography. older. years or more. woman’s health status and age-based for breast cancer. longevity. determination. Women Current evidence is Evidence is insufficient Other than screening with There is inadequate In addition to There is insufficient Current evidence is with dense insufficient to assess the to recommend for or mammography, the evidence that mammography, evidence on benefits insufficient to assess balance of benefits and against yearly MRI organization does not ultrasonography as an contrast-enhanced and harms of screening the balance of harms of adjunctive screening. recommend routine use of adjunct to breast MRI is also strategies in women benefits and harms of screening for breast alternative or additional mammography reduces recommended. After who have dense breasts. adjunctive screening cancer using breast tests. providers breast cancer mortality. weighing benefits for breast cancer ultrasonography, should comply with state There is limited and risks, using breast magnetic resonance laws that may require evidence that can be considered for ultrasonography, imaging (MRI), digital disclosure to women of ultrasonography as an those who cannot MRI, DBT, or other breast their breast density as adjunct to undergo MRI. methods. (DBT), or other methods recorded in a mammogram mammography in women identified to report. increases the breast have dense breasts on cancer detection rate. an otherwise negative There is sufficient screening mammogram. evidence that ultrasonography as an adjunct to mammography increases the proportion of false positive screening outcomes.

Women at high risk

Some organizations release different guidelines for women who are considered to be at high risk of developing breast cancer. Different screening guidelines may be suggested for women who have risk factors such as a BRCA1 or BRCA2 , who are an untested family member of someone who has a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, who have a history of mantle or chest radiation which occurred before age 30 years, or who have a lifetime breast cancer risk of 20% or greater based on their family history. Additional information on screening guidelines for women at high risk can be found in the references.1,3,6,7,9 References

1Siu AL; U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for breast cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Annals of 2016;164(4):279–296.

2U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for breast cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Annals of Internal Medicine 2009:151(10):716–726.

3Oeffinger KC, Fontham ET, Etzioni R, Herzig A, Michaelson JS, Shih YC, Walter LC, Church TR, Flowers CR, LaMonte SJ, Wolf AM, DeSantis C, Lortet-Tieulent J, Andrews K, Manassaram-Baptiste D, Saslow D, Smith RA, Brawley OW, Wender R; American Cancer Society. Breast cancer screening for women at average risk: 2015 guideline update from the American Cancer Society. JAMA 2015;314(15):1599–1614.

4Committee on Gynecologic Practice. Committee opinion no. 625: Management of women with dense breasts diagnosed by mammography. Obstetrics and Gynecology 2015;125(3):750–751.

5Committee on Practice Bulletins–Gynecology. Practice bulletin number 179: Breast cancer risk assessment and screening in average-risk women. Obstetrics and Gynecology 2017;130(1):e1–e16.

6Committee on Practice Bulletins–Gynecology, Committee on , Society of Gynecologic . Practice bulletin No. 182: Hereditary breast and . Obstetrics and Gynecology 2017;130(3):e110–e126.

7Lauby-Secretan B, Loomis D, Straif K. Breast-cancer screening—viewpoint of the IARC Working Group. New England Journal of Medicine 2015;373(15):1478– 1479.

8Monticciolo DL, Newell MS, Hendrick RE, Helvie MA, Moy L, Monsees B, Kopans DB, Eby PR, Sickles EA. Breast cancer screening for average-risk women: Recommendations from the ACR commission on . Journal of the American College of 2017;14(9):1137–1143.

9Monticciolo DL, Newell MS, Moy, L, Niell B, Monsees B, Sickles EA. Breast cancer screening in women at higher-than-average risk: Recommendations from the ACR. Journal of the American College of Radiology 2018;15(3 Pt A):408–414.

10Qaseem A, Lin JS, Reem AM, Horwitch CA, Wilt TJ. Screening for breast cancer in average-risk women: Statement from the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine 2019;170(8):547–560.

11American Academy of Family Physicians. Summary of recommendations for clinical preventive services. 2016. Available from: http://www.aafp.org/dam/AAFP/documents/patient_care/clinical_recommendations/cps-recommendations. [PDF-276KB]

Document reviewed September 22, 2020