If you’re a woman in your 20s or 30s, you probably haven’t had a mammogram. The people who calculate the need for medical tests figure it’s not worth it to screen most women at such a relatively young age.
But if you already knew, from your genes, that you were at elevated risk for breast cancer, you might feel differently. Now, some researchers feel differently about it too.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that women with 14 of the genetic markers associated with increased risk of breast cancer had about six times the risk of breast cancer as women with none of the markers. They recently reported their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Their research could mean a big change in the timing of cancer screening for some women, as well as the ways doctors detect early signs of the disease.