Keeping you informed on the latest shifts in breast cancer screening guidelines and broader health policies is crucial, which is why we’ve compiled some key updates that could impact your healthcare decisions and access. This edition dives into the recent adjustments to the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on mammography, a significant federal move toward marijuana rescheduling that could open new research avenues, an essential CDC campaign aimed at increasing screening rates among disabled women, and revealing studies on the racial disparities in cancer outcomes. Read on for detailed insights into these developments and how they might affect you or your loved ones.
Official USPSTF Revision to Screening Mammography Guidelines
On April 30th, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) officially revised their breast cancer screening recommendations for average-risk women. The USPSTF now recommends that these women receive screening mammography every two years starting at age 40 rather than the previously recommended age of 50. VBCF wrote about this change when the draft recommendation was released, and we continue to say that this recommendation was a good start but does not go far enough. As far as when you should start receiving breast cancer screenings and how often, talk to your doctor to come up with the best plan for you, given your own health and family history. ARTICLE: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2818283
Marijuana Rescheduling
You may have heard that the federal government is taking steps to reclassify marijuana. Why are we talking about this? Well, how a substance is scheduled not only has an impact on the legal system, but research as well. Currently, marijuana is a Schedule I substance, the same category as heroin, meaning it is classified as having no medical use and a high risk of abuse and addiction. Because of this scheduling, it is nearly impossible to conduct any scientific research on marijuana’s potential impact on health. Researchers have to jump through even more hoops in order to get funding to research marijuana and they are only allowed to source from a handful of places across the country. Reducing marijuana’s scheduling will ease some of the restrictions on research and will hopefully increase the evidence base on marijuana’s impact on cancer. There is a lot of misinformation and at best anecdotal evidence on how marijuana can impact the disease of cancer itself and the side effects of cancer treatment. If the door for research was opened even a little bit wider, patients and their doctors would know more and be able to make better decisions around marijuana and cancer. ARTICLE: https://www.axios.com/2024/05/20/marijuana-cannabis-schedule-3-research
New Resource
If you are a healthcare provider, check out the CDC’s Right to Know Campaign! This education campaign is focused on encouraging women with disabilities to get regular breast cancer screenings, as disabled women are shown to get mammography at a lower rate than non-disabled women. ARTICLE: https://www.cdc.gov/right-to-know/php/materials/index.html
Big Gaps in Cancer Outcomes Based on Race
If you have been following VBCF for a while, you know that, unfortunately, this is not news. However, it is important to point out the different factors that influence these gaps are both biological and structural. Just focusing on breast cancer, Black women have a 40% higher likelihood of dying from breast cancer compared to white women, though the groups are diagnosed at about the same rate. Let’s look at some different factors as to why. Women of African ancestry are more likely to have genetic mutations that lead to the development of triple negative breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease. That’s biology. Additionally, there has historically been a lack of research funding to look into genetics of non-white patients and a lack of diversity amongst researchers, and those are structural factors. However, progress has been made. “The disparity in the overall cancer death rate between Black people and whites has narrowed significantly over the past three decades, from 33% in 1990 to just over 11% in 2020.” The more we address the structural issues, the easier it will be to tackle the biological differences. ARTICLE: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-05-15/report-highlights-big-gaps-in-cancer-outcomes-based-on-race
Landmark Study of Cancer in Black Women Launches
Speaking of needing more research, the American Cancer Society is launching a massive study of cancer in Black women.They plan to enroll 100,000 Black women into a study attempting to understand why there is such a disparity in cancer mortality between Black women and women who are part of other ethnic groups. It is anticipated that this study will last for 30 years, which makes it a longitudinal study, meaning that the researchers will follow the enrollees over many years and intermittently ask them questions about their lives and their health to try and find correlations or commonalities that could start to explain the differences in cancer mortality. Participation is only open to Black women who live in certain states, including Virginia. To learn more about the study and enroll, please visit VOICES of Black Women. ARTICLE: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/cancer-black-women-study-launches-rcna150880
