Advances in Family Practice: Breast Cancer Risk Assessment and Screening in Primary Care

Appropriate breast cancer screening is an important competency for the primary care provider. While professional recommendations and guidelines can provide guidance for the clinician, ambiguity and lack of consensus amongst these recommendations can leave the provider feeling unsure about how to counsel patients, assess risk, or apply screening modalities. This article provides a summary of risk assessment and screening methods for breast cancer in the average-risk woman.