if you're 40 years or older in the U.S it's time for a mammogram new guidelines out this week from the U.S preventative Services Task Force recommend breast cancer screenings every other year starting at age 40. that's a decade earlier than current guidelines the government panel says lowering the age could save 19 percent more lives especially for black women who are 40 percent more likely than white women to die of breast cancer it's the second leading cause of cancer death among all women in the U.S for more on the new recommendations I'm joined by Dr Harriet Borofsky a breast Radiology specialist at Hackensack Meridian health well you know for years we saw advocacy groups clinicians as well calling for a lower age recommendation on these breast cancer screenings why are we seeing this recommendation now well we are so encouraged a little bit relieved that this is really positive I think we're seeing these recommendations now because for many years the United States prevented a task force was not advocating for screening routine screening women in their 40s I'm thinking that there was not enough data to support that those of us that that live and breathe early detection screening breast Imaging have known for very many years women in their 40s account for a significant proportion of breast cancers they tend to get more aggressive tumors we are seeing an increase in early age breast cancers for reasons that are uncertain women in their 40s account for at least 20 percent of all women who have breast cancer and most of them are not women who have a family history or other risk factors why we're seeing an increase we're uncertain about at the current time what does a recommendation mean I mean will insurance companies be required to pick up the cost of this and if I or or anyone else you know goes in and they we meet the age requirements and request a mammogram will we automatically be given one now so a recommendation is really a guideline it's a way for your doctors to counsel you when you're seeing your primary care physician and and it's a way for women to know when should I start screening whether it's breast cancer or colon cancer these are guidelines for us in terms of insurance companies thankfully insurance companies are covering women including women in their 40s for having screening mammograms but this is a way for us to know when should we start it's been very confusing for women because as you may know the guidelines or recommendations are different amongst different governing bodies we have been recommending and advocating screening mammograms starting at the age of 40 and annually based on the recommendations of the American College of radiology are there any risks doctor associated with having more frequent scans and starting those scans at an earlier age really the benefit far outweigh any risks really the only risk that we're cited were the anxiety and stress related to recalls from mammograms and of course we have to do biopsies in order to diagnose breast cancer many biopsies are benign that is what sort of the end quote harms or risks were but I think the greater harm is not screening young women particularly women in their 40s any risk from radiation is incredibly low having a mammogram is like being in Flight it's similar to background radiation so benefits far outweigh risks I've never heard that comparison before so I will remember that Dr Harriet Borofsky is a breast Radiology specialist with Hackensack Meridian health thank you so much thank you so much for having me