New guidance from ACP says all average-risk females aged 50-74 should undergo biennial mammography screening for breast cancer

ACP also offers screening advice for females aged 40-49, frequency of screening, discontinuing screening, and females with dense breasts

American College of Physicians

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, 2026 – New guidance from the American College of Physicians (ACP) says all asymptomatic, average-risk females ages 50 to 74 should receive biennial screening mammography for breast cancer. Females between the ages of 40 and 49 should discuss with their doctor their risk for breast cancer and the benefits and harms of screening. This is because harms of screening such as false positive results, psychological distress because of it, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, additional testing, and radiation exposure may outweigh the uncertain benefits in this population. ACP's advice, "Screening for Breast Cancer in Asymptomatic, Average-Risk Adult Females: A Guidance Statement from the American College of Physicians", is published in Annals of Internal Medicine. 

ACP also provides guidance on when to discontinue breast cancer screening and how to approach screening for females with dense breasts. ACP says that asymptomatic, average‑risk females who are 75 years or older, or those with a limited life expectancy, discuss stopping routine screening with their doctor. This is because the benefits of screening beyond age 74 are reduced or uncertain, while potential harms, such as overdiagnosis, become more likely with increasing age. For asymptomatic, average‑risk females who have dense breasts, ACP advises doctors to consider supplemental digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Decisions should consider potential benefits and harms, radiation exposure, availability, patient values and preferences, and cost. However, ACP advises against using supplemental MRI or ultrasound for screening in this population. 

The guidance statement was developed by ACP’s Clinical Guidelines Committee which defined average risk as females who do not have a personal history of breast cancer or diagnosis of a high-risk breast lesion, a genetic mutation such as BRCA 1 or 2 that is known to increase risk, another familial breast cancer risk syndrome, or a history of high-dose radiation therapy to the chest at a young age. 

“Screening for breast cancer is essential and should be guided by the best available evidence" said Jason M. Goldman, MD, MACP, President of ACP. "ACP developed this guidance to provide physicians and females with the information they need to make breast cancer screening decisions, including when to start and discontinue, how often to screen, and which methods to use for screening."   

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Journal

Annals of Internal Medicine

DOI

10.7326/ANNALS-25-05116 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Screening for Breast Cancer in Asymptomatic, Average-Risk Adult Females: A Guidance Statement from the American College of Physicians

Article Publication Date

17-Apr-2026

Breast cancer special issue spotlights AI while widening the view of precision care

China Anti-Cancer Association

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AI empowering breast cancer care.

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Credit: Cancer Biology & Medicine

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful force in breast cancer research, but the future of personalized care will not be written by algorithms alone. A new special issue of Cancer Biology & Medicine brings together reviews, perspectives, editorials, and original research that examine how AI is beginning to support precision oncology while also highlighting wider advances in diagnostics, therapeutics, translational science, and clinical strategy. By placing AI alongside broader breast cancer research progress, the collection offers a more balanced and realistic picture of how the field is evolving toward more individualized care.

Breast cancer remains one of oncology's most complex diseases because of its biological heterogeneity, variable treatment responses, and rapidly changing therapeutic landscape. AI has drawn growing attention for its potential to improve prediction, classification, and treatment planning, especially as clinical, imaging, and molecular data become more interconnected. Yet progress in breast cancer medicine is also being driven by novel therapeutic modalities, precision diagnostics and subtyping, and translational oncology. A meaningful view of the field therefore requires attention not only to digital tools, but also to the scientific and clinical advances shaping care more broadly. Based on these challenges and opportunities, deeper exploration is needed into how AI and broader breast cancer research can move forward together.

Published on March 15, 2026 in Cancer Biology & Medicine, the special issue (DOI: https://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/23/3)“Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Personalized Breast Cancer Treatment” was guest-edited by Professor Zefei Jiang of the Department of Oncology at the Chinese PLA General Hospital. The issue reflects a wider landscape than its title alone may suggest. Alongside articles focused directly on AI in breast cancer, the collection also features work on precision immunotherapy, antibody–drug conjugates, engineered cell therapies, multi-omic analysis, digital pathology, and clinical trial methodology.

The issue’s AI-related contributions show where computational approaches are already gaining traction. A review on AI in breast cancer surveys current applications and advances, while another article examines the role of radiomics in predicting response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A multicenter original study extends that direction by using multimodal AI to predict PIK3CA mutation status from digital pathology and clinical data. Another study applies deep learning to dynamic optical coherence tomography for label-free diagnosis of lymph node metastasis. Beyond AI, the collection also features translational studies on dual therapeutic targets in luminal androgen receptor triple-negative breast cancer, and metabolic engineering of SLC38A2 to enhance CAR-macrophage antitumor activity, collectively showing how personalized breast cancer care is being shaped by converging advances across multiple domains.

“This collection shows that the next phase of breast cancer research is not about choosing between AI and traditional oncology advances,” the issue suggests. “It is about learning how to connect computational tools with stronger biological insight, better therapies, and clinically meaningful research design.” That balance is what makes the special issue especially timely: AI is presented as an important enabler of precision care, but not as a substitute for the therapeutic, translational, and methodological progress that continues to drive the field.

The broader message of the issue is clear. Personalized breast cancer treatment will likely depend on a more integrated research model, one that combines computational prediction with deeper molecular understanding, better treatment strategies, and stronger clinical evaluation. By bringing AI-centered work together with studies on advances in biological discovery and therapeutic innovation, Cancer Biology & Medicine offers readers a timely snapshot of a field moving toward more precise and more connected care.

For more details and to access the full special issue, visit Cancer Biology & Medicine online.
Artificial intelligence empowering precision diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer: advancing global clinical practice with regional insights
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2026.0018
Balancing global standards and regional nuances in breast cancer care: the role of guidelines, clinical research, precision medicine, and artificial intelligence in advancing quality of care for patients worldwide
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0674
Precision immunotherapy for breast cancer: from biomarkers to clinical practice
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0815
Advances in TROP2-targeted antibody-drug conjugates for breast cancer therapy: into the new era
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0504
Protocol and statistical designs in classic clinical research—toripalimab series trial analysis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0759
The role of radiomics in predicting the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0655
Artificial intelligence in breast cancer: applications and advancements
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0704
Integrative multi-omic analysis identified ERBB2 mutations and senescence-driven immune suppression as dual therapeutic targets in LAR triple-negative breast cancer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0691
Metabolic engineering of SLC38A2 reprograms glutamine utilization and enhances CAR-macrophage antitumor function in solid tumors
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0775
Virtual histology imaging of lymph nodes via dynamic full-field optical coherence tomography and deep learning to differentiate metastasis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0747
Multimodal artificial intelligence predicts PIK3CA mutation in breast cancer from digital pathology and clinical data: a multicenter study
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0771

###

DOI

https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2026.0018
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0674
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0815
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0504
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0759
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0655
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0704
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0691
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0775
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0747
https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0771

About Cancer Biology & Medicine

Cancer Biology & Medicine (CBM) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal sponsored by China Anti-cancer Association (CACA) and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital. The journal monthly provides innovative and significant information on biological basis of cancer, cancer microenvironment, translational cancer research, and all aspects of clinical cancer research. The journal also publishes significant perspectives on indigenous cancer types in China. The journal is indexed in SCOPUS, MEDLINE and SCI (IF 8.4, 5-year IF 6.7), with all full texts freely visible to clinicians and researchers all over the world (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/2000/).

Video introducing the breast cancer special issue [VIDEO] 

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Journal

Cancer Biology & Medicine

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Special Issue on Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Personalized Breast Cancer Treatment Guest

 

Mining waste product could help store carbon emissions, Concordia-led study suggests

A new technique using iron-rich slag could help reduce the industry’s climate footprint

Concordia University

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A new Concordia-led study suggests that iron-rich slag, one of mining’s biggest waste products could help store carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

The researchers examined whether slag, a waste material generated from metal processing, can trap the greenhouse gas under realistic conditions. While scientists have long known slag can store CO₂ by forming solid minerals, most studies focus on systems that are heavily dependent on water.

This study, published in Chemical Engineering Journal, looks at what happens in conditions that are more realistic, with low-to-moderate moisture. Using slag from a Quebec smelter, the researchers placed samples in sealed containers, injected CO₂ gas and varied moisture levels, then tracked how much CO₂ remained in the air after 24 hours. They also analyzed the solids and liquids using imaging and chemical tests to identify how the carbon was stored.

The slag removed up to 99.5 per cent of CO₂ in lab tests. More notably, most of the carbon was not stored as minerals but instead attached to the slag’s surface — a process known as adsorption.

The results reveal that mineral formation need not be the only avenue for CO2 storage, while at the same time offering a better understanding of how these materials interact in more realistic environments.

The researchers believe that the approach could be integrated directly into mining operations, where large volumes of slag are already stored on-site. Captured CO₂ from nearby industrial processes could be injected into these waste piles with minimal processing, even in remote locations, turning a liability into a passive, low-maintenance carbon sink.

Samantha Wilcox, PhD 2026, led the study, with co-supervisors Catherine Mulligan, a professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Carmen Mihaela Neculita, a professor at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

Read the cited paper: “Evaluation of carbon sequestration by iron-rich slag materials”

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Journal

Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cej.2026.174903 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Evaluation of carbon sequestration by iron-rich slag materials

 

Study finds warmer streams may weaken river food webs

Northern Arizona University

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This graphic shows how increasing water temperatures shift the way microbes and aquatic insects use carbon. As water warms and leaves decompose, less of the leaves’ carbon is converted into usable biomass and more of their carbon is released as CO₂. 

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Credit: Victor Leshyk-Ecoss, NAU

Rising stream temperatures may be weakening the foundation of river food webs by altering how carbon moves through these watery ecosystems. 

In a new study published in the journal Ecosphere, researchers from Northern Arizona University found that when water temperatures increase, microbes and aquatic insects process fallen leaves, twigs and bark more rapidly, but a smaller fraction of that leaf litter supports their growth and a bigger fraction is released into the water and air as carbon dioxide.  

The findings point to a shift in how river ecosystems retain energy under warming conditions, with implications for plants and animals in rivers across the western United States. 

“Warming doesn’t just speed up biological processes in streams—it changes how efficiently organisms turn carbon into biomass, with more of it being lost as CO₂,” said Michael Zampini, a postdoctoral researcher at NAU and the lead author of the study. 

A ‘living laboratory’ to track carbon flow 

To examine how warming affects river processes, the NAU researchers built a controlled stream system at The Arboretum at Flagstaff, constructing 48 flow-through mini stream chambers inside a greenhouse. Using pond water, they manipulated the water temperature while maintaining natural light and water chemistry, simulating a range of stream conditions over two years. 

“This system let us manipulate temperature while keeping everything else as close to a real stream as possible, which is critical for understanding how these processes actually play out in nature,” said Zampini. 

Within this system, the team used tracers to follow carbon from leaf litter—the primary energy source in many forested rivers—into microbes and caddisflies. By labeling leaves with a rare form of carbon, they directly measured how much carbon was retained as biomass, how much of it was released into the water and air as CO₂ and how much was transferred to microbes and insects, allowing them to quantify how effectively organisms converted food into growth. 

Faster processing, lower retention in warming streams 

The researchers found that as temperatures increased, decomposition rates rose, but a larger share of carbon was lost as CO₂ rather than incorporated into biomass. Caddisflies showed a distinct thermal response, with low temperatures limiting their activity, intermediate temperatures maximizing their efficiency, and higher temperatures increasing their consumption without corresponding gains in biomass. Together, these patterns indicate that warming releases more carbon into the atmosphere and converts less carbon into biomass. 

“Even when consumption increases, the system becomes less efficient—more carbon goes to respiration and less to building the food web,” said Jane Marks, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) at NAU. 

In rivers across the Southwest, where aquatic insects link leaf litter to animals higher on the food chain such as fish, this shift has broader implications. Declines in carbon use efficiency for microbes and aquatic insects mean a greater proportion of carbon entering rivers may be lost to the atmosphere, reducing energy available to support aquatic food webs.  

“When less carbon is retained in biomass, there is less energy available to support aquatic life, which can ripple through the food web and ultimately affect fisheries, water quality and ecosystem stability that people depend on,” Marks said. 

Other researchers involved in the study included University of Alabama professor Steven Thomas and Northern Arizona University researchers George Koch, Benjamin Koch, Paul Dijkstra and Victor Leshyk at Ecoss. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1120343). 

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The “living laboratory” constructed by researchers at Northern Arizona University. This controlled stream system at the Flagstaff Arboretum allowed scientists to manipulate water temperatures and directly observe how aquatic organisms responded. 

Credit

Victor Leshyk-Ecoss at NAU

Journal

Ecosphere

DOI

10.1002/ecs2.70585 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Temperature accelerates decomposition and controlscarbon use efficiency for microbes and shreddingcaddisflies

Article Publication Date

18-Apr-2026

 

AI makes granular pricing easier, but consumer psychology may make it less profitable

Research finds how consumers’ comparison across products can erode total profit from more differentiated pricing

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

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BALTIMORE, April 15, 2026 – Big data, artificial intelligence and advanced pricing algorithms make it easier than ever for companies to fine-tune prices for individual products to closely reflect their unique value and cost. The conventional wisdom is straightforward: better data, better algorithms and sharper segmentation should produce better profits. But new research suggests that the most profitable answer isn’t always more fine-grained pricing across a product line. In fact, it is fewer, better-chosen price points.

The study, titled “Consumer-Driven Class Pricing,” is by Zuhui Xiao from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Class pricing is a surprisingly widespread feature of everyday markets: the practice of assigning a small number of price points to a much larger assortment of related products. Think of a bar menu with many draft beers but only three price points, or a supermarket aisle with hundreds of SKUs but a dozen distinct shelf prices. Similar patterns extend to fast-moving consumer goods, restaurants, toys, discount stores, convenience retail, budget travel, books and car rentals.

The rationale for class pricing is not just operational simplicity; it is consumer psychology. Consumers do not evaluate prices in isolation. Rather, they form price expectations across the products in front of them and compare what they pay with what they expected to pay for nearby alternatives. Paying more than expected is perceived as a psychological loss, while paying less than expected is perceived as a psychological gain.

Xiao finds that the key driver of class pricing is “loss aversion,” the well-established tendency for people to be more sensitive to perceived losses than to equivalent gains. In this context, consumers feel the pain of paying more than expected more intensely than they appreciate the pleasure of paying less than expected.

 “When firms introduce more granular pricing, it triggers consumers’ direct comparison of prices,” said Xiao. “Consumers perceive higher-priced items as losses relative to cheaper alternatives and tend to resent higher prices more than they reward lower ones. As a result, the price disadvantage of higher-priced items is psychologically amplified, making them look worse than the underlying price difference alone would suggest.”

Because of this amplified price disadvantage, even when higher-priced products carry greater prestige, better taste or higher quality, firms cannot fully translate that stronger appeal into sufficiently higher willingness to pay. At the same time, they must keep lower-priced products cheap enough to attract additional demand. The result is an asymmetry: firms give up more on the lower-priced products than they can recover on the higher-priced ones, reducing total profit.

“This asymmetry can reduce consumers’ total willingness to pay across the assortment and outweigh the benefits of differentiating prices based on cost or value,” added Xiao. “That is why adding more price points can actually backfire.”

As a result, expanding the number of price points may reduce total profitability. The findings challenge the assumption that more data and better algorithms should always lead to more precise pricing.

“Even with advanced technologies, firms should be cautious,” Xiao explained. “More pricing flexibility does not necessarily translate into higher profits. In many cases, simpler pricing structures are more effective.”

Read the full study here.

About Marketing Science and INFORMS

Marketing Science is a premier peer-reviewed scholarly marketing journal focused on research using quantitative approaches to study all aspects of the interface between consumers and firms. It is published by INFORMS, the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research, AI, analytics, data science, and related disciplines.

INFORMS serves as a global authority in advancing cutting-edge practices and fostering an interdisciplinary community of innovation. With a network of more than 12,000 members across academia, industry, and government, INFORMS connects thought leaders and emerging professionals who apply science and technology to solve complex challenges and drive better decision-making.

Through its prestigious journals, world-class conferences, certification programs, and professional resources, INFORMS empowers its community to enhance operational efficiency, elevate organizational performance, and promote smarter decisions for a better world.

Discover more at www.informs.org

 

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Journal

Marketing Science

DOI

10.1287/mksc.2023.0133 

Article Title

Consumer-Driven Class Pricing