Many Alberta women are now able to start biennial (every two years) breast cancer screening sooner following changes to clinical practice guidelines.
The recommended age for biennial screening for average-risk women has been lowered to 45 from 50. Alberta is the first province in Canada to make these changes, which expand the benefits of routine screening to more people.
The updated guidelines were created by the Alberta Breast Cancer Screening Clinical Practice Guideline Committee and are the result of an extensive review of new available evidence.
Based on current screening rates, approximately 12,000 more screening mammograms could be performed each year for women aged 45 to 49. The updated guidelines are available on screeningforlife.ca
Source: Screening for life website