Mayo Clinic Minute: Why Black women should consider screening for breast cancer earlier

Age recommendations for when women should start yearly mammograms to screen for breast cancer vary. However, Mayo Clinic health care professionals have been firm for more than a decade that women should start breast cancer screening at age 40. Starting mammograms early is especially important non-Hispanic Black women, who have higher rates of breast cancer compared to non-Hispanic white women.

In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Sandhya Pruthi, with Mayo Clinic’s Breast Diagnostic Clinic and Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, explains why Black women are at higher risk and should start screening for breast cancer earlier.

Dr. Sandhya Pruthi says starting screening early may help reduce these disparities.

Detecting breast cancer early can improve prognosis and reduce deaths. Dr. Pruthi stresses the importance of understanding your individual risk factors, which can start with a conversation.

Those different screening recommendations may include MRI in addition to mammography, whole breast ultrasound or molecular breast imaging.
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