Promoting health through breast cancer screening

Abstract

Health promotion and preventive medicine are popular topics today due to the rising cost of medical care. The use of mammography has been shown to significantly reduce the mortality rate of women with breast cancer, and breast cancer treatment is less costly when it is done in the early stages of the disease. However, screening mammography is not being utilized as much as it should be because of conflicting guidelines established by the medical community. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role mammography should play in promoting health, and to determine who should be responsible for establishing a universal set of guidelines.