Current recommendations for mammographic screening of patients is that patients have their first mammogram by age 40 and annually after that.

Patients with a strong family history of breast cancer with breast cancer in first-degree relatives premenopausally or bilaterally should begin their screening studies approximately 10 years earlier.

Certainly patients with symptoms of a mass, nipple retraction or a bloody nipple discharge should undergo imaging when those symptoms arise and not necessarily await the screening recommendations.

Copyright 2000