Signify Premium Insight: Screening Could Start Sooner Under USPSTF Guidelines

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent body of experts which works to make evidence-based recommendations about preventative clinical services, recently revised its guidance to now recommend that the age at which women begin annual breast screening in the US is lowered from 50 to 40.

The group released a draft recommendation statement and evidence review, giving the recommendation a ‘B’ rating, meaning that there is strong confidence in the evidence that the move would be beneficial. According to the guidance, clinicians should encourage their patients to undertake the screening, where appropriate.

In lowering the age at which screening is recommended, the USPSTF reverses 14 years of guidance, after, in 2009, the group raised the age at which mammography screening was recommended, from 40 to 50. Such history makes the reversal of this guidance particularly significant.