Screening and Testing to Detect Breast Cancer
Screening methods to find breast cancer include clinical breast examination (doctors or nurses examine women’s breasts for lumps), mammography, and other imaging techniques. Screening may find cancers early, when they are most treatable.
On this page:
Breast Changes and Conditions
- Understanding Breast Changes: A Health Guide for Women
Information on specific breast conditions and changes, including how these changes are detected, diagnosed and treated. Explains that while most breast changes are not cancer, all breast changes need to be checked by a doctor. Helps women understand the next steps after an abnormal mammogram result, and includes a list of questions to help women talk with their doctor about these issues. - Having a Breast Biopsy: A Guide for Women and Their Families
This guide from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality explains the different kinds of breast biopsies, how effective they are in finding cancer, and their possible side effects.
Breast Cancer Screening Summary
- Breast Cancer Screening (PDQ®)
[ patient ] [ health professional ]
Expert-reviewed information summary about tests used to detect or screen for breast cancer.
Mammograms
- Mammograms
A fact sheet that defines screening and diagnostic mammograms. Discusses mammography screening guidelines and risk factors for breast cancer. - Find an FDA Certified Mammography Facility
Find an FDA certified mammography facility near where you live or work. - National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP)
CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) provides access to breast and cervical cancer screening services to underserved women in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, 5 U.S. territories, and 12 tribes.
Other Screening Methods
- FDA Safety Communication: Thermography Is Not an Alternative to Mammography
This FDA document alerts the public, including women and health care providers, that thermography is not a replacement for screening mammography and should not be used by itself to diagnose breast cancer.
Clinical Trials to Screen for Breast Cancer
Find Clinical Trials to Screen for Breast Cancer
Check for breast cancer screening trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials now accepting patients. The list of clinical trials can be refined by location and other features.
Research About Breast Cancer Screening
- Norwegian Study Estimates Overdiagnosis of Breast Cancer from Screening
As many as 1 in 4 invasive breast cancers diagnosed in Norway through the country's widespread, population-based mammography screening program never would have caused the woman harm or required treatment, researchers reported in the April 3, 2012, Annals of Internal Medicine. - Drawbacks of Adding MRI to Mammography Plus Ultrasound May Outweigh Benefits
Adding ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to annual screening mammograms for women with an increased risk of breast cancer and dense breast tissue detects more new breast cancers than mammography alone but also results in more false-positive findings, according to results of a multicenter clinical trial reported in the April 4, 2012, Journal of the American Medical Association. - Cancer Trends Progress Report: Breast Cancer Screening
This section of the Cancer Trends Progress Report focuses on screening mammography. - Breast Imaging Study
The Breast Imaging Study will evaluate the use of several new, promising breast cancer screening techniques in women at high genetic risk of breast cancer. - Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium
The Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium studies breast cancer screening practices and fosters collaborative research to improve the practice of community-based mammography screening.
