It is from the age of 40 that black patients should consider screening for breast cancer by mammography.
- Black women must begin screening for breast cancer with mammography at age 42.
- This early detection allows them to undergo less heavy surgeries and less chemotherapy.
- From the age of 40, these patients are almost twice as likely to die from this tumour.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women. “There are ethnic disparities in the use and results of its screening. Many guidelines call for starting screening at age 50 for all patients. However, these may not be fair or optimal,” said an international team of researchers. In a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open, she looked at data from 415,277 breast cancer-related deaths among women in the United States between 2011 and 2020.
Breast cancer: almost twice as many deaths among black women over 40
Scientists found that black patients were almost twice as likely to die of breast cancer from the age of 40 as white women of the same age. The breast cancer death rate was 27 per 100,000 in black women, compared to 15 per 100,000 in white patients. In contrast, the lowest death rates were seen among Asian, Hispanic and Native American women, with 11 deaths per 100,000 women.
Because of these findings, the authors recommend that black women start getting tested earlier. In detail, they should start getting tested at the age of 42, eight years earlier than the age recommended by health authorities. White women could start getting tested at age 51, Hispanic women at age 57, and Asian or Pacific Islander women at age 61.
Personalized breast cancer screening
“This study provides the precise information that physicians would need to tailor the age of onset of breast cancer screening based on ethnicity. We agree that screening should be personalized,” said Mahdi Fallah, author of the work, in a statement. He added that family history of cancer is an important part of this process. Thus, the researcher advises all women to know them and to talk to their doctor about them.
Although early detection can increase the chances of survival, it can also sometimes lead to inconveniences, such as additional examinations which can be invasive and increase anxiety in patients. “They are called back for additional imaging in about 10% of cases, and biopsies are needed in 1-2% of cases, which is quite low. You have to compare these numbers to the lives saved with earlier mammography screening “It may have other benefits, allowing women of all ethnicities to have less extensive surgery and less chemotherapy, which impacts quality of life,” explained Kathie-Ann Joseph, surgical oncologist.