The Nurse's Part in the Recognition of Cancer of the Breast.

Editor's note: From its first issue in 1900 through to the present day, AJN has unparalleled archives detailing nurses' work and lives over more than a century. These articles not only chronicle nursing's growth as a profession within the context of the events of the day, but they also reveal prevailing societal attitudes about women, health care, and human rights. Today's nursing school curricula rarely include nursing's history, but it's a history worth knowing. To this end, From the AJN Archives highlights articles selected to fit today's topics and times.This April 1915 article was written by surgeon Howard Lilienthal, the fifth president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the sole author of the first English-language textbook on thoracic surgery. Here he writes to enlist nurses in the early recognition of breast cancer in order to "control this disease by the only means now known"-that is, early diagnosis and immediate surgery. "Your knowledge will enable you to speak with authority and you, almost as much as the surgeon who operates, may be concerned in saving a useful life."Today, routine mammography can identify breast cancer before it is symptomatic, but there is not yet consensus among key organizations about when screening should begin or how often it should be done. In this issue, Roberta Baron and colleagues review the breast cancer screening guidelines of the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network to help nurses better interpret and use these recommendations.