What’s the best schedule for mammograms to screen for breast cancer? Truth is, no one really knows. In the US common wisdom is to test every year, starting at 40 or so, and continuing until your life expectancy is low enough that you wouldn’t do anything with the results.
In the EU, the recommendation is every 2-3 years
European breast cancer guidelines recommend screening every 2 to 3 years (healio.com)
The panel found that women aged 45 to 49 years should receive screening every 2 to 3 years , women aged 50 to 69 years should be screened every 2 years, and women aged 70 to 74 years should be screened every 3 years.
I think the UK recommends every three years.
But there isn’t a lot of good prospective research on the matter. And a lot of doctors think that we do too many mammograms, and find a lot of cancers that would never have grown, leading to a lot of worry and unneeded surgery and other treatments.
Anyway, someone has organized a large prospective study. It randomizes women into two groups, one of which will get annual screenings, and the other will get genetic screening and some other schedule of mammograms based on the results of that information.
I just joined. They put me in the “individualized” arm, and I just spit in a test tube and put my sample in the mail. (You can choose one arm, but the more people are actually randomly assigned, the better the results, so I let them randomize me.)
If you identify as a woman, are age 40-74, live in the US, and have never had breast cancer, you are eligible to join, too. They are looking for 100K woman, and have something like 50K, so there’s plenty of room to join.