In order to help save lives from breast cancer, the American Cancer Society has released screening recommendations for women. For a woman that is of average risk, the recommendations are listed below. For any patient that is at an increased risk for breast cancer, they should speak to their provider about when screenings should be initiated. Self breast exams and clinical breast exams are not currently recommended. However, many providers continue to do clinical breast exams and they continue to educate women on signs …show more content…
The most important one is survival. Treatment can start as soon as the cancer is detected. According to Jin (2014), “studies have shown that women who have routine mammograms have 10% to 25% less chance of dying of breast cancer than women who do not have mammograms” (p. 2585). While mammograms are useful, they are not perfect. They may misdiagnose or completely not pick up the cancer on the scan. Another disadvantage a mammogram screening is false-positive results. This can lead to unnecessary testing and increased anxiety of the patient. Approximately half of all 50-year-old women will have a false positive within the next ten years of screening for breast cancer (Jin, 2015). As providers, it is important that we discuss with each patient when they will need to begin screening and how