ABSTRACT
Cancer is among the leading causes of death around the globe, and breast cancer is the most prevalent among women. As a consequence, if breast cancer screening is carried out annually for a decade or longer, the cumulative risk of receiving at least one false-positive test result over a screening period might rise by up to 50%. In the case of breast cancer screening, the estimates of overdiagnosis, occurring after mammography tests, range from 5% to 50%. Breast cancer screening guidelines might work very well and offer clear benefit on a population level, but might not always be to the direct benefit of an individual patient. Indeed, good communication aimed at informed decision-making about breast cancer screening should also include information about alternative screening modalities, such as breast ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, and digital tomosynthesis, which are known to yield better specificity. There are numerous considerations when breast cancer screening tests, such as mammography, are proposed.
