According to one study, black patients may benefit more from breast cancer testing from age 50 rather than age 42. According to some current medical advice, doctors generally recommend that female patients begin mammograms at age 50 to be routinely checked for breast cancer. However, because Black individuals have a higher risk of dying from breast cancer in their 40s than other ethnic groups, it may be preferable to start screening for them years earlier.
The new study, published Wednesday (April 19th) in the journal JAMA Network Open, was penned by a team of researchers. “The current one-size-fits-all policy of screening the entire female population from a certain age can be neither fair and equitable nor optimal,” the authors wrote. Particularly among Black female patients, “Clinical studies may be needed to investigate whether changing screening guidelines would alter the course of the disease and have a population effect.”
According to data evaluated by the study's authors, more than 2011 breast cancer deaths were reported in the United States between 2020 and 415.200. Data are from the National Center for Health Statistics, which tracks over 99% of deaths in the United States.
The authors discovered that there are significant racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer death rate among individuals in their 40s. In this age category, there were 100.000 deaths per 27 people per year among Black patients.
By comparison, white patients experience 100.000 deaths per 15 person-years, while Native American, Alaska Native, Hispanic, or Asian or Pacific Islander patients experience 100.000 deaths per 11 person-years.
Researchers determined that the risk of dying from breast cancer between the ages of 50 and 59 was an average of 0,329% across all racial and ethnic groups.
D., co-author of the study and head of the Risk-Adapted Cancer Prevention Group at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. According to Mahdi Fallah, “but this level of risk is reached at different ages for women of different racial/ethnic groups.”
Black women usually reach this 0,329% risk level earlier, at age 42. Asian or Pacific Islander women tend to reach this level later, at age 61, according to Fallah; followed by 51-year-old White women, 57-year-old Native American or Alaskan Native women, and 61-year-old Hispanic women. The study found that patients of Native American, Alaskan, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Island descent had similar breast cancer death rates in their 40s, but still crossed this risk threshold at various ages.
“The findings suggest that health policy makers and clinicians may consider an alternative, racially and ethnically-adapted approach, in which Black female patients begin screening earlier, around age 50 instead of 42,” the authors wrote in the conclusion.
The authors also note that some groups of medical professionals advise individuals to begin breast cancer screening at age 50, while others advise to consider starting at a younger age.
For example, the American Cancer Society currently recommends that women at average risk for breast cancer begin screening at age 45, but there are options to start as early as 40. In addition, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that patients be offered screening from the age of 40 and to begin screening no later than age 50.
However, many other recommendations state that testing should begin at age 50 and that starting earlier should be left to the individual.
The study authors emphasized that other factors in addition to screening age may contribute to the higher incidence of Black patients dying from breast cancer in their 40s. However, they suggest that scheduling Black patients' checkups earlier may be a way to begin addressing the problem.
Dr., a breast oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and not involved in the new study. According to Rachel Freedman, it's difficult to determine from this study whether early screenings will make a difference.
"While this study confirms a younger age of death from breast cancer in Black women, it does not confirm why, or even whether screening is the main reason," Freedman said in an email to CNN. We lack data on the types of tumors or medical histories of women, two factors that affect death from breast cancer.
In short, the study's data make it impossible for researchers to state with certainty when any patient begins screening for breast cancer or how this relates to their chances of dying from the disease.
Source: LiveScience
Günceleme: 24/04/2023 11:54