In October, the American Cancer Society (ACS) updated its guidelines for when women at average risk should be screened for breast cancer. These new recommendations are less straightforward than past versions, resulting in ...
Nov 2, 2015
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(HealthDay)—About 15 percent of breast cancers are diagnosed in the interval between regularly scheduled mammograms, where the last mammogram showed no signs of a cancer.
May 3, 2018
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A mammogram is an X-ray image of your breasts that is used to screen for breast cancer. Mammograms play a key role in early breast cancer detection and help decrease breast cancer deaths.
Oct 18, 2021
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Breast cancer screening with mammography results in a significant reduction in breast cancer mortality, according to long-term follow-up results of a large-scale Swedish trial. The results are published online in the journal ...
Jun 28, 2011
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A new study by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital in collaboration with researchers at the University of York and Leeds in the UK and MD Andersen Cancer Center in Texas puts to the test anecdotes about experienced ...
Aug 29, 2016
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France took a costly and unprecedented leap Friday in offering to pay for 30,000 women to have their breast implants removed because of mounting fears the products could rupture and leak cheap, industrial-grade silicone into ...
Dec 24, 2011
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Mammograms should not be done on a one-size fits all basis, but instead should be personalized based on a woman’s age, the density of her breasts, her family history of breast cancer and other factors including her own ...
Jul 6, 2011
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(AP) -- Bill Dunphy thought his colonoscopy would be free.
Dec 28, 2011
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Reports of some patients developing swollen lymph nodes after a COVID-19 vaccination has raised questions about whether screening mammograms should be rescheduled due to concerns that this finding could be mistaken for a ...
Feb 23, 2021
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Over the past decades, the idea that all adults should get regularly screened for cancer—with mammograms, colonoscopies and prostate specific antigen blood tests—has been conveyed to the public time after time. But current ...
Jul 2, 2019
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Mammography is the process of using low-dose amplitude-X-rays (usually around 0.7 mSv) to examine the human breast and is used as a diagnostic as well as a screening tool. The goal of mammography is the early detection of breast cancer, typically through detection of characteristic masses and/or microcalcifications. Mammography is believed to reduce mortality from breast cancer. No other imaging technique has been shown to reduce risk, but breast self-examination (BSE) and physician examination are considered essential parts of regular breast care.
In many countries routine mammography of older women is encouraged as a screening method to diagnose early breast cancer. The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening mammography, with or without clinical breast examination, every 1-2 years for women aged 40 and older. Altogether clinical trials have found a relative reduction in breast cancer mortality of 20%, but the two highest-quality trials found no reduction in mortality. Mammograms have been controversial since 2000, when a paper highlighting the results of the two highest-quality studies was published.
Like all x-rays, mammograms use doses of ionizing radiation to create images. Radiologists then analyze the image for any abnormal findings. It is normal to use longer wavelength X-rays (typically Mo-K) than those used for radiography of bones.
At this time, mammography along with physical breast examination is the modality of choice for screening for early breast cancer. Ultrasound, ductography, positron emission mammography (PEM), and magnetic resonance imaging are adjuncts to mammography. Ultrasound is typically used for further evaluation of masses found on mammography or palpable masses not seen on mammograms. Ductograms are still used in some institutions for evaluation of bloody nipple discharge when the mammogram is non-diagnostic. MRI can be useful for further evaluation of questionable findings as well as for screening pre-surgical evaluation in patients with known breast cancer to detect any additional lesions that might change the surgical approach, for instance from breast-conserving lumpectomy to mastectomy. New procedures, not yet approved for use in the general public, including breast tomosynthesis may offer benefits in years to come.
Mammography has a false-negative (missed cancer) rate of at least 10 percent. This is partly due to dense tissues obscuring the cancer and the fact that the appearance of cancer on mammograms has a large overlap with the appearance of normal tissues.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
