Optimal Breast Cancer Screening for Women Over 50: Weighing Benefits and Risks

Abstract

Breast cancer screening for women is the process of checking the breasts for any dangers as far as cancer is concerned. Signs and symptoms are checked to ascertain the possibilities of the disease. Women need to be informed about the best screening options. The information should be inclusive of the benefits of screening and also the risks for the same, hence the informed and shared decision-making process. Unfortunately, breast cancer screening cannot prevent breast cancer, but the good thing is that it could help detect breast cancer early hence the high chances of early treatment. The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an organization made up of doctors and disease experts recommends that women above 50-74 years old should have tests every two years. There are various methods of tests which include mammograms, magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Clinical breast exam, and breast self-awareness (Qaseem et al., 2021). The doctors recommend mammograms as the best for the age bracket above 50 years. However, the screening tests could pose some challenges and risks. Some of them could include false positive results where a doctor sees something that resembles cancer but in actual sense, it could be not. The initial misdiagnosis could lead to further tests which could be expensive, time-consuming and may cause unwanted anxiety for the elderly (Bhattacharyya., 2020). Additionally, some tests could be painful and radiation exposure could be harmful in the long run, especially where repeated X-rays could harm someone. Finally but not least, there could be false negative test results which could be due to some missed cancer cells. The mammograms may miss some cancerous cells and when this happens, it results in delays in finding cancer cells which in turn delays the desired treatment. Breast cancer increases with age up to the age of 80. Mammography has demonstrated efficacy in decreasing mortality from breast cancer in women 50 years and above. Breast cancer accounts for about 30% of all cancer diagnoses in women. But the good thing is that deaths have significantly dropped due to improvements in early detection and good treatments (Bhattacharyya., 2020). Research indicated that of about 41% of all incidents of breast cancer, 57% occurred in women above 50 years of age (Qaseem et al., 2019). Genetic mutations account for about 10% of breast cancer, specifically the BRCA 1 and 2. At the age of 50 and above, other factors that may accelerate cancer may include a history of ductal carcinoma in situ, high body mass index, first birth at the age greater than 50 years and also a family history of breast cancer. Still, women who could have used or used postmenopausal hormone therapy even having a normal body mass index but having dense breasts showed greater risks of breast cancer (Schünemann et...