Understanding Breast Cancer Screening Recommendations

Concerns with the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force's (USPSTF) recommendations for mammogram breast cancer screening and how these could impact prison screening mammography in prisons are explained. Sections of this article cover: what the USPSTF suggested for mammograms; what evidence the USPSTF reviewed; whether other respected organizations came to the similar conclusions after reviewing the evidence as USPSTF did; what the benefit is of screening mammography in women aged 40-49; what the harms of mammography are-false positives and overdiagnosis; types of breast cancers; putting it all together-comparing benefit to harm-women only need to have a screening mammogram every other year starting at age 50 (biennial exams will "reduce the harms of overdiagnosis by 50% but will preserve 80% of the benefits"), yet ultimately leaving the decision to those women under 50; and the complexity of issuing screening mammograms to female inmates.