Screening mammography guidelines have been updated, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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If you’re a woman between the ages of 40 and 70, you should undergo screening mammography for breast cancer every two years, the United States Preventive Services Task Force has just recommended. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson explains.

Nelson: The big news in this is they now assign a grade B to the idea that one can undergo a screening with mammography every other year beginning at age 40 rather than at age 50 to 74, so you stop screening at 74. They looked at the regular digital mammography. There are new tools out there, tomosynthesis,, they're basically 3D mammography. They argue that the 3D mammography needs to be accompanied by a 2D representation and they're not sure what the benefit of 3D mammography is.    :30

Nelson says several trials have found a benefit with 3D mammography in correctly identifying cancerous lesions versus those that are not, but says the task force requires abundant evidence before changing guidelines, so that may be upcoming. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.