To Screen or Not to Screen Women in Their 40s for Breast Cancer: Is Personalized Risk-Based Screening the Answer?

Abstract

Editorials5 July 2011To Screen or Not to Screen Women in Their 40s for Breast Cancer: Is Personalized Risk-Based Screening the Answer?Jeanne S. Mandelblatt, MD, MPH, Natasha Stout, PhD, and Amy Trentham-Dietz, PhDJeanne S. Mandelblatt, MD, MPHFrom Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, DC 20057; Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02215; and University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, WI 53792.Search for more papers by this author, Natasha Stout, PhDFrom Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, DC 20057; Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02215; and University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, WI 53792.Search for more papers by this author, and Amy Trentham-Dietz, PhDFrom Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, DC 20057; Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02215; and University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, WI 53792.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-155-1-201107050-00008 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail After decades of research and numerous consensus panels, guidelines on the use of screening mammography to detect breast cancer among women aged 40 to 49 years (1, 2) continue to generate controversy in the scientific community (3) and confusion in the public sector (4–6). The most recent update to screening mammography guidelines by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (2) was based on a synthesis of the clinical trial evidence about the balance of benefits and harms of screening for average-risk women and did not consider costs. They concluded that “there is moderate certainty that the net benefit [in terms ...