What do women want to know?

In the early 1970s, before there was any scientific evidence to prove mammography's benefit to younger women, the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) began to promote screening for all women over the age of 35. The ACS's message to the public was--and still is--"breast cancer is curable, if detected early enough." In 1985, mammography equipment companies and other businesses with vested interests in getting women to undergo screening began taking over the "public education" efforts with exaggerated claims, such as "a 91% cure rate." By the time the NCI withdrew its mammography screening recommendation to women in their forties, it was too late. Most women now overestimate their odds of developing breast cancer in their forties and overestimate what mammography can do for them. The recent NIH Consensus Conference Report on mammography screening could have a major impact by explaining that the overwhelming majority of breast cancers are unaffected by early detection, either because they are aggressive or slow growing. Women must be better informed about the risks of mammography screening, especially the uncertainties surrounding a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ.