Department of Surgery

In 2009, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force raised the age for women to begin routine breast cancer screening to 50 from 40. The task force also found insufficient evidence to recommend for or against screening for women 75 and older. Now, 14 years later, researchers at the Larner College of Medicine at The University of Vermont have discovered some unintended − and unwelcome − consequences from those loosened guidelines: A decline in mammography screening rates for every age group of women, including those aged 50-74 who are at the highest risk of developing breast cancer.

UVM Cancer Center researchers Sarah Nowak, Ph.D., and Brian Sprague, Ph.D., found that a 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force change in guidelines led to an unintended consequence: a decline in mammography screening rates for all age groups, including the 50-74 group, which is most at risk of developing breast cancer and most in need of screenings. Their results were recently published in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

Fanny Asmussen, an International visiting medical student from Aarhus University in Denmark, will also be visiting from March – May 2023 to conduct research with Thomas Ahern, PhD as her faculty mentor. The project title is “Infection and risk of breast cancer recurrence: A Danish nationwide case-control study.”

Elisabeth Solmunde, an International visiting medical student from Aarhus University in Denmark, Departments of Epidemiology and Clinical Medicine, conducted research with Thomas Ahern, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgical Research as her faculty mentor.

Many congratulations to Somen Mistri, PhD of the Boyson Lab who successfully defended his PhD in Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences in December 2022!