ADVICE

Question: I’m a 64-year-old woman. Do I really need to get a mammogram every year like my primary care physician says? — Dee F., Austin, Texas

Answer: If you’re at average risk for breast cancer, the American Cancer Society says that women ages 40 to 44 have the option to start screening with a mammogram annually. Women ages 45 to 54 should get mammograms every year. Women 55 and older can switch to a mammogram every other year or continue yearly mammograms. Screening should continue as long as a woman is in good health and is expected to live at least 10 more years.

Unfortunately, cancer screening is way below where it should be — not only for breast cancer. A new study found that in 2018, only 66% of folks age 50 and older were screened for colorectal cancer; for women age 45 and older, only 63% were screened for breast cancer; and for women ages 21 to 65, only 83% were screened for cervical cancer.

This puts all women at risk for late diagnosis — and a riskier recovery. This is especially true for two subsets of women who have survived breast cancer.

A new study in the journal Cancer shows subsequent breast cancer, acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, ovarian cancer and lung cancer are more likely to develop after a woman has had HR-negative breast cancer than after HR-positive breast cancer. Women first diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50 also have greater risk for subsequent cancer than women with later onset breast cancer.

Some good news on the cancer-fighting front: The combination of a new cancer vaccine and existing immunotherapy drug has been shown in mice to improve the success rate of treatments for metastatic disease from 20% to 75%, according to a study in Nature Communications.

Stay tuned for clinical trials. And make sure to get all your cancer screenings as your doctor recommends.