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In a major change from its longstanding advice, an influential medical panel now recommends that women start mammography screening for breast cancer at age 40.

The new guidance, from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, says women at average risk of breast cancer should start having mammograms, every other year, when they turn 40. For years, the recommendation had been to start at age...

High-risk breast cancer patients can take action to help stop their disease from coming back or killing them.

The same healthy habits that leading cancer organizations recommend to prevent cancer appear to make a big difference in heading off its return in these patients, new research shows.

Following cancer-prevention guidelines before, during and after chemotherapy was associated ...

While the typical recommendation is for women to start getting mammograms at age 40, the American College of Radiology has released new guidelines that call for all women to have a breast cancer risk assessment by age 25 to determine if they should start screening mammograms before they turn 40.

This early step is particularly important for women who are Black or Ashkenazi J...

For young women who survive breast cancer, a new study offers some reassurance about pregnancy: Pausing hormonal therapy to have a baby does not raise the risk of a cancer recurrence, at least in the shorter term.

A trial of more than 500 young women treated for breast cancer found no signs of harm from interrupting standard hormone therapy to have a baby. Over three years, patients' risk...

A new study has uncovered a possible risk factor for breast cancer that could help doctors more accurately weigh a woman's chances of developing the disease.

While it's known that women with dense breast tissue have a greater risk for developing breast cancer and that breast density declines with age, researchers have now found evidence of cancer risk specific to breast density declining ...

Women having a mastectomy for earlier-stage breast cancer may be overtreated if doctors evaluate their lymph nodes while they are still on the operating table, a preliminary study suggests.

Researchers found those patients were much more likely to receive aggressive treatment — surgical removal of their underarm lymph nodes, often with radiation — versus women whose surgeons took more...

Older breast cancer survivors often have other medical issues and a shorter life expectancy than younger breast cancer survivors. What's more, their cancers are often slow-growing, and surveillance may lead to over-treatment of cancers that won't kill them, researchers say.

Despite these downsides, older breast cancer survivors are still undergoing mammograms even though their risk of dev...

Experts recommend that women at least consider starting breast cancer screening once they turn 40. Now a new study suggests that is especially critical for Black women.

Looking at data on U.S. breast cancer deaths, researchers found -- as other studies have -- that Black women in their 40s were substantially more likely to die of the disease than other women their age. The disparity was s...

Some women with multiple breast tumors can safely be spared breast removal surgery, choosing less invasive treatment instead, new research suggests.

Under certain conditions, women with two or three breast tumors in one breast can avoid mastectomy without increasing the chances that their breast cancer will come back.

“For these patients, breast-conserving therapy is a reason...

ChatGPT, the AI chatbot everyone is talking about, can often give reliable answers to questions about breast cancer, a new study finds. But it's not yet ready to replace your physician.

The big caveat, researchers said, is that the information is not always trustworthy, or offers only a small part of the story. So at least for now, they said, take your medical questions to your human doct...

A new study shows that money, or lack of it, can stand in the way of follow-up testing after an abnormal mammogram result.

Just over one-fifth of U.S. women surveyed by researchers said they would skip additional testing if they had to pay a deductible or co-pay.

Of 714 women who responded when asked if they'd have follow-up imaging if they had to pay for all or part of it, 21% said...

For women with "focal breast complaints" -- issues with pain, lumps or discharge -- ultrasound is an effective diagnostic tool, according to new research.

These concerns are frequent, and ultrasound is effective as a standalone diagnostic method, researchers report April 4 in the journal Radiology.

“The evaluation of breast complaints is a common problem in breast diagno...

Breast cancer screening may be free for women with health insurance, but high costs may still keep some from getting needed follow-up tests, a new study finds.

The study, of more than 230,000 U.S. women who underwent screening mammography, found that those in insurance plans with higher out-of-pocket costs were less likely to get follow-up testing after an abnormal screening result.

Taking progestogen-only birth control pills comes with a slightly increased risk of breast cancer -- about the same degree of risk associated with taking pills that contain both progestogen and estrogen, new research finds.

After five years' use, investigators found a 20% to 30% heightened breast cancer risk with both types of contraceptives, according to the study published March 21 in ...

Newer scanning technology may spot more breast cancers and lower the rate of dreaded false positives, a large, new study shows.

Now available in a growing number of health care facilities, tomosynthesis uses low-dose X-rays and computer reconstructions to create 3D images of the breasts to find cancers. In contrast, traditional mammography creates 2D images of the breasts.

"Tom...

New U.S. federal regulations will require mammography facilities to tell women if they have dense breasts, a description of how the tissue looks on the X-ray.

It can be more difficult to detect cancer in dense breast tissue on a mammogram. Having dense breasts is also a risk factor for developing breast cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration update amends regulations issued u...

Though BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations are associated with breast and ovarian cancer in younger women, those over 50 continue to have a high risk of breast cancer.

That's true even if they didn't have breast cancer earlier, new research shows.

“What is striking about our results is that ...

Certain gene mutations put women at high risk of breast cancer, and now an early study hints that obesity might make matters worse.

The findings come from a study of breast tissue samples from women who carried particular mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2 — which convey much higher-than-normal risks of both breast and ovarian cancers.

The researchers found that among women...

Many older women with early-stage breast cancer can skip radiation without harming their survival odds, a new clinical trial finds.

The study involved women age 65 and older who had surgery for small breast tumors deemed to be low risk of coming back. Typically, those women undergo radiation after surgery, and then start on hormonal therapy to further drive down the chances of a recurrenc...

Nearly half of women have dense breast tissue, which can be a double whammy on their odds for breast cancer.

Not only are dense breasts a risk factor for cancer, but this glandular and fibrous connective tissue make it harder to detect cancers on a mammogram, the usual method for breast cancer screening.

New r...

The Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid makes it more likely that a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer earlier rather than at an advanced, harder-to-treat stage, new research suggests.

Not all U.S. states expanded Medicaid coverage after the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) made it possible in 2010. That's because the Supreme Court made it optional for states ...

While anyone can experience breast pain, don't panic: It's rarely cancer.

Penn State Health offers some reassurance about what might cause the pain and when it might be time to have a mammogram.

“We see a lot of patients who come looking for answers that have widespread, cyclical breast pain,” said