Detection rates
- BreastScreen WA provides over 85,000 screening mammograms each year to Western Australian women
- Screening mammograms can detect up to 90% of breast cancers
- Some women may be recalled for further tests, but this does not necessarily imply a breast cancer is present
- For every 1,000 women screened, about 950 will have no abnormality detected, approximately 50 women will be called back for further tests and about 6 of these women may have a breast cancer detected
For all women, there is a chance that mammography will either:
- miss a change due to breast cancer (false negative)
- further tests will be performed to examine a change that is not due to breast cancer (false positive)
Related links
Useful resources to download
- Have a FREE screening mammogram – Helping you make an informed choice [PDF / 198KB]
- Fact Sheet 1 – Breast cancer and screening mammography [PDF / 122KB]
- Screening mammography for women with implants [PDF / 193KB]
- Further tests – What does this mean? [PDF / 289KB]
File Formats
Some documents for download on this website are in a Portable Document Format (PDF). To read these files you might need to download Adobe® Acrobat Reader.
