What is the right age to start mammogram screening?

Screening mammography has been shown to reduce breast cancer mortality among women aged 50-69 years. However, its appropriateness for younger women at average risk of breast cancer remains controversial. Jolie Ringash, with the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, has reviewed the evidence regarding the effectiveness of screening mammography that has accumulated since the task force’s 1994 recommendation against the procedure for women aged 40-49. The task force did not find conclusive evidence to include or exclude mammograms from the periodic health examination of women under age 50. Instead, it recommends that, upon reaching 40, women be told about the potential benefits and risks and helped to decide when they wish to begin screening.

In a related commentary Dr. Mary Barton stresses the relative paucity of information on harm and the uncertainties as to how best to counsel women about breast cancer screening.

Preventive health care, 2001 update: screening mammography among women aged 40-49 years at average risk of breast cancer
–- J. Ringash, with the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care

Screening mammography for women aged 40-49: Are we off the fence yet?
-– M.B. Barton, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School, Boston; tel 617 421-6011