Race and ethnicity-adjusted age recommendation for initiating breast cancer screening

Many guidelines recommend starting breast cancer (BC) screening at age 50 years. There is a substantial disparity in BC mortality by race, especially for early-onset BC in Black women. The current one-size-fits-all policy to start screening all women from the same age may not be optimal. A US population-based cross-sectional study showed that when BC screening was recommended to start at a 10-year cumulative risk of BC-death of 0.329%, Black women reached this risk threshold at age 42 years, White women at age 51 years, American Indian or Alaska Native and Hispanic women at age 57 years, and Asian or Pacific Islander females at age 61 years. The authors conclude that health policy makers may consider a race or ethnicity risk-adapted approach to age to start BC screening.