A federal task force on breast cancer recently issued new recommendations for how often women should get screened for cancer.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS anchor Leah McLean sat down with Inside Your Health expert Dr. Archelle Georgiou to discuss the new guidelines and what they mean.

According to the American Cancer Society, over 5,000 women in Minnesota will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Given this, the new recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force say women should get screened for breast cancer at age 40, and continue to get screened every two years until they’re 74.

The previous guidelines came out in 2016 and recommended women start getting mammograms at age 50.

The change in guidelines comes as a result of three factors, said Georgiou. Women in their 40s are seeing an increase in breast cancer by about 2% per year, technology and treatments have advanced and can find cancer sooner with less risk of a false positive, and studies have shown black women have the lowest rate of screening but are at increased risk for aggressive cancer.

Some physicians recommend annual screening plus additional screening for women with dense breasts. Dense breasts can only be seen during a scan and can make it harder for doctors to detect lumps or abnormalities in the breasts.

Read the full study by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force below: