Close Surveillance for Breast Cancer Close surveillance or
screening for cancer routinely uses tests to try to catch cancer
in its early stages, when it is most treatable. Surveillance
doesn’t prevent cancer. However, early detection improves a
person’s chance of surviving their cancer. Studies of breast
cancer screening tools for high-risk women, some including women
with BRCA mutations, found certain screening more likely to
detect cancer. Whether close surveillance will lower the death
rate from breast cancer in high-risk women is unknown.
Nevertheless, based on these studies, recommendations for breast
cancer screening in the high-risk population differ from
recommendations for the general population. In women with BRCA
mutations or other hereditary risk factors, breast cancer tends
to occur at a younger age, and the lifetime risk for cancer is
higher than the general population. Therefore, screening tests
that might not be appropriate for women of average risk may be
recommended for those in the high-ris