Can breast cancer be found early?

Can breast cancer be found early?

Screening refers to tests and exams used to find a disease, like cancer, in people who do
not have any symptoms. The goal of screening exams, such as mammograms, is to find
cancers before they start to cause symptoms. Breast cancers that are found because they
can be felt tend to be larger and are more likely to have already spread beyond the breast.
In contrast, breast cancers found during screening exams are more likely to be small and
still confined to the breast. The size of a breast cancer and how far it has spread are
important factors in predicting the prognosis (outlook) for a woman with this disease.
Most doctors feel that early detection tests for breast cancer save many thousands of lives
each year, and that many more lives could be saved if even more women and their health
care providers took advantage of these tests. Following the American Cancer Society's
guidelines for the early detection of breast cancer improves the chances that breast cancer
can be diagnosed at an early stage and treated successfully.