Questionable data and preconceptions: Reconsidering the value of mammography for American Indian women

Although the benefits of mammography are well established, many remain skeptical of the value of niammography for American Indian women. This skepticism steins in from a belief that breast cancer is too an event among American Indians to warrant widespread screening. The validity of this assumption for Northern Plains Indians is challenged by a discussion of the limitations of available data on breast cancer in Anierican Indian populations (including lack of generalizability, underestimation, and an overreliance on relative rather than absolute measures of cancer incidence) and by findings from the Minnesota Breast and Cervical Caacer Control Program, a federally funded program providing free breast and cervical cancer screening to American Indian and other women in Minnesota. In light of this information, the authors recommend that the low priority of marnmography for American Indian women be reconsidered.