Mammography Study Shows Over 20 Percent Increase in Screening for Women in Their 40s After USPSTF Guideline Change

New research shows the impact of the 2024 changes to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines on mammography screening uptake for women in their 40s.

For the study, to be presented at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference, researchers reviewed electronic health record data for 985,687 women between the ages of 40 to 74 who had screening mammography between 2018 and 2025.

The study authors subsequently compared the use of screening mammography prior to and after the aforementioned changes to the USPSTF guidelines that lowered the age of biennial mammography screening to begin at 40 years of age. The researchers noted that 880,685 women were in the pre-guideline group and 105,002 women were in the post-guideline group.

While women in their 40s comprised 29.8 percent of those who had mammography screening prior to the USPSTF guideline change, researchers noted a greater than 20 percent increase in mammography screening uptake for these women after the guideline change (50.7 percent).

“Following the April 2024 USPSTF guideline expansion, screening mammography uptake among women aged 40–49 increased substantially, however the likelihood of a breast cancer diagnosis within 180 days did not significantly differ between the pre- and post-guideline periods,” noted lead study author Karen Farrar, PhD, a senior research analyst at Truveta, and colleagues.

In addition to seeing no statistically significant change with breast cancer for women in their 40s between pre-and post-guideline changes, the study authors also noted no statistical difference in the likelihood of early-stage and late-stage presentation for women diagnosed within three months after screening.

“Stage at diagnosis did not differ significantly in the short post-guideline period; longer follow-up is needed to assess whether earlier detection translates to stage-shift benefits over time,” pointed out Farrar and colleagues.

Reference

1. Farrar K, Do D, Masters NB, Cartwright BM. Breast cancer screening and detection after the 2024 USPSTF recommendation for women aged 40-49. Presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference, May 29-June 2, 2026, Chicago. Available at: https://www.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/267745 .