Atossa Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ATOS) CEO Steven Quay has offered a set of recommendations to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) following the release of a draft report on breast cancer screening.
In the report, the USPSTF calls for mammograms to begin at 40 years of age, which returns the agency to its pre-2009 stance. In 2009, the body said that women could wait until age 50 to begin screenings.
Quay, for his part, has spent the last decade conducting research on breast cancer, including its prevention, and has 71 patents and patent applications related to his work, according to a statement. He has nearly 400 published contributions to medicine and has been cited over 11,500 times, placing him in the top 1% of scientists worldwide.
"I appreciate that the USPSTF has brought their recommendation in line with decades of data and back to their 2009 recommendation of starting at age 40, agreeing with the medical community of the benefits of starting screening early," Quay said.
"However, for 14 years women in their forties have been left to fend for themselves. I believe that the shift in recommendation from age 40 to 50 in 2009 may have led to thousands of early breast cancer diagnoses being missed as a consequence. And the toll is heaviest in those women without access to quality healthcare, including women of color."
Quay’s recommendations to the USPSTF say that women at normal risk of breast cancer should begin mammographic screening at age 40, but that women who have risk factors should get their first mammogram at age 35. These can be deermeind using validated risk assessment tools like the Gail Model, Quay said.
Also, since the compliance of mammography screening guidelines is only 75%, Quay suggested the USPSTF consider recommendations that link government-based healthcare reimbursement to programs and outcomes that lead to improved compliance.
Additionally, Quay noted that high breast density is a known, modifiable risk factor for future breast cancer. In his view, the USPSTF should consider recommending additional imaging for women with high breast density and providing a report on the strength of the evidence of the relationship of density, mammographic sensitivity to cancer detection, and future cancer risk.
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