Breast cancer screening
medical screening of asymptomatic, healthy women for breast cancer
Breast cancer screening is the medical screening of asymptomatic, apparently healthy women for breast cancer in an attempt to achieve an earlier diagnosis. The assumption is that early detection will improve outcomes. A number of screening tests have been employed, including clinical and self breast exams, mammography, genetic screening, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging.
A clinical or self breast exam involves feeling the breast for lumps or other abnormalities. Medical evidence, however, does not support its use in women with a typical risk for breast cancer.
Universal screening with mammography is controversial as it may not reduce all-cause mortality and may cause harms through unnecessary treatments and medical procedures. Many national organizations recommend it for most older women. The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening mammography in women at normal risk for breast cancer, every other year between the ages of 40 and 74. Other positions vary from no screening to starting at age 40 and screening yearly. Several tools are available to help target breast cancer screening to older women with longer life expectancies.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Breast cancer screening” is medical screening of asymptomatic, healthy women for breast cancer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Breast, cancer and screening, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17011492. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Breast cancer screening” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.