Breast screening practices among primary physicians: reality and potential

Increased use of regular screening mammograms and clinical breast examinations (CBE) among women aged 40 years and more could have a dramatic impact on mortality from breast cancer, but patient and physician barriers to mammography impede its acceptance. We conducted a survey of 300 primary care physicians to assess their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and breast screening practices. Our results show that only 71 percent of the respondents ordered mammograms for all women aged 50 to 75 years, which is the recommendation by the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society. Approximately 46 percent of respondents performed CBE on all women patients aged 50 to 75 years. Inadequate patient insurance coverage, equivocal radiology reports, patient reluctance or worry, and patient embarrassment all appear to be barriers to physicians' utilization of breast screening.