Screening mammography is an important first step in early breast cancer detection, and treatment and can help reduce breast cancer mortality. After abnormal screening mammography, additional imaging and possibly image-guided biopsy are recommended. However, not all facilities offering screening mammography provide all the diagnostic services (ie, imaging and image-guided biopsy) required for a complete workup. This lack of on-site availability of diagnostic services may be an obstacle to timely, definitive breast cancer diagnosis and may lead to delayed treatment.

In a large retrospective study by Lawson et al, no major differences were detected in the on-site availability of most diagnostic services across different groups of individuals on the basis of race and ethnicity or neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors. However, although no evidence existed that on-site diagnostic service availability varied by race and ethnicity in most models, patients in racial and ethnic minority groups were less likely to be provided same-day diagnostic services and Black patients were less likely to undergo same-day biopsy. These differences may lead to disparities in the timely diagnosis of breast cancer on the basis of race and ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

Understanding the differences in the availability and receipt of diagnostic breast services between populations and the factors associated with these differences may help guide the development of interventions to reduce disparities in breast cancer care and outcomes. Future studies evaluating the associations between on-site availability and the receipt of diagnostic services, the time to diagnostic resolution of imaging abnormalities, and the time to definitive surgery and treatment are needed.

Reference: Lawson MB, Zhu W, Miglioretti DL, et al. Disparities in Standard-of-Care, Advanced, and Same-Day Diagnostic Services among Patients with Abnormal Screening Mammography. Radiology. 2025;314(2):e241673. doi:10.1148/radiol.241673