When does the National Cancer Institute (NCI) recommend that women have screening mammograms?
• Women age 40 and older should have mammograms every 1 to 2 years. • Women who are at higher than average risk of breast cancer should talk with their health care providers about whether to have mammograms before age 40 and how often to have them. • What are the factors that place a woman at increased risk of breast cancer? The risk of breast cancer increases gradually as a woman gets older. However, the risk of developing breast cancer is not the same for all women. Research has shown that the following factors increase a woman’s chance of developing this disease: • Personal history of breast cancer—Women who have had breast cancer are more likely to develop a second breast cancer. • Family history—A woman’s chance of developing breast cancer increases if her mother, sister, and/or daughter have been diagnosed with the disease, especially if they were diagnosed before age 50. Having a close male blood relative with breast cancer also increases a woman’s risk of developing the disease
