Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines Should Evolve With Science
Personalized recommendations could help save lives and avoid unnecessary tests.
A picture’s worth a thousand words.
Photographer: Joel Saget/Getty Images/AFPOctober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as I was reminded over the weekend when a server offered me a special rose-colored cocktail to benefit a local cancer ward. I didn’t need that (delicious) beverage to be reminded that breast cancer is still the most common cancer among women. But it did make me think about how, despite decades of Pink Octobers, little has changed in our approach to breast cancer screening.
Recommendations for how often to screen have shifted in recent years, but guidelines are still written for women at average risk. Oncologists now have so much more information on who is at risk for more aggressive cancers, or ones that strike at a younger age. So why aren’t women screened based on their individual risk?