New breast cancer screening guidelines have been issued for Black women and women of color who are at high-risk for breast cancer. Statistics show more black women die from stage 3 and stage 4 cancers than non-Hispanic white women.
Black women are least likely to be diagnosed with stage 1 cancer because they were not screened in time.
According to a press release from PRNewswire, the new American College of Radiology (ACR) and Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) guidelines recognize that Black women and women of color (mixed-race, biracial, etc.) are at high-risk for breast cancer and should be screened earlier.
Black women and women of color are 42 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than non-Hispanic white women despite roughly equal breast incidence rates.
Black women are also more likely to have more aggressive types of breast cancer tumors.
The ACR and SBI now call for all women to have a risk assessment at age 30 to see if screening earlier than age 40 is needed. The societies also newly-recommend that women previously diagnosed with breast cancer be screened with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The ACR and SBI continue to recommend that women at average breast cancer risk begin screening at age 40.
“These updates will help save more lives,” said Debra Monticciolo, MD, FACR, chair of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission.
“We changed our approach to help save more African-American women and others at higher risk from this deadly disease,” said Wendy B. DeMartini, MD, FSBI.
For more information regarding the proven effectiveness of regular mammography screening at reducing breast cancer deaths, please visit RadiologyInfo.org, MammographySavesLives.org and EndTheConfusion.org.
SOURCE: American College of Radiology
Stock photo by Annette Bunch / Getty Images
