Most women should get their first mammogram earlier, according to an expert panel.

New guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force recommend women get a mammogram every other year, beginning at age 40.

A decade sooner than the previous recommendation.

Our Kristy Dutton spoke to a radiologist specializing in breast cancer imaging to find out what's causing the change.

That in today's medical news.

The new breast cancer screening is receiving high praise from some, but it's leading others to wonder why the sudden change.

Joining us now is Dr. L.Z.

Cool from U of L Health.

Why is this change happening?

Why are we seeing these guidelines change from where they were?

I think it's become a lot of pushback from a lot of national organizations such as the Society of Breast Imaging, American College of Radiology, American College of Gynecology, and Obstetrics of All really pushed for the screening age for an average each to be starting at the age of 40.

And so with increased breast cancer screening.

So will that also increase false positives?

So that's a really common misconception.

A lot of data, as is shown both in United and in European trials, that this doesn't necessarily increase false positives.

There might be a slightly increased callback rate by just by increasing your screening pool.

You're seeing more patients, you're calling backward patients.

However, the amount of cancers that are being detected, which is building for particularly the ages of 40 and 49, are increased in that it's not a cohort.

Okay.

Well, some people think that this is maybe too much screening.

Others.

Others think it's we could do more.

Where do you lie in that spectrum?

Well, I agree with the Society of Breast Imaging and the American College of Radiology, as we're in certified breast doubles and a breast imager.

I agree that we should start at the age of 40 for the average patient.

However, I do think that we should be doing annual screening in my presence, not every other year, because that has been shown to actually improve overall mortality and increase your gain for all of our patients who are screened at particularly at the ages of 44.

So you think that it could even go another step further, a little bit more?

And so with this new recommendation, which will increase at least a step in the right direction, in your opinion, how do you hope this changes the lives of those that have breast cancer?

I think for women who, you know, we're seeing more and more women at a younger age getting diagnosed with breast cancer.

And I think by starting screening at the age of 48, particularly when it's an early, we'll be able to detect early and subtle breast cancers that are much more treatable.

You don't really have a cure for breast cancer.

And while the breast cancer treatment has to be a long way in the last couple of decades, really the closest thing we've got to a cure is by screening and screening every year, because we can detect the further subtle breast cancers improve them.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much for your time and thank you for that information and your perspective.

Thank you so much for having me.