Key recommendations on breast cancer screening

Here are the key screening recommendations from the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care for women with an average risk of developing breast cancer:

– No routine mammography for most women aged 40 to 49 because the risk of cancer is low in this group while the risk of false-positive results and overdiagnosis and overtreatment is higher.

– Routine screening with mammography every two to three years for women aged 50 to 69.

– Routine screening with mammography every two to three years for women aged 70 to 74.

– No screening of women using MRI.

– No routine clinical breast exams or breast self-exams to screen for breast cancer.

Women with an average risk of developing breast cancer have had no previous breast cancer, no history of the disease in a first-degree relative like a mother or sister, no known BRCA genetic mutation and no previous exposure to therapeutic radiation of the chest wall.