What is Breast Screening?

Mammography Remains the Gold Standard...

Although, the majority of breast disorders are benign (non-life threatening), one of the disturbing aspects of breast cancer is that so little can be done to prevent it. Most risk factors cannot be predicted or controlled, especially genetically based premenopausal cancers.

The best chance of cure for breast cancer is to treat it at its earliest stages. The KEY to finding breast cancer is EARLY detection and the key to early detection is SCREENING.

Breast cancer screening refers to “testing” the breast in asymptomatic women (with no symptoms) for the purpose of detecting unsuspected breast cancer at a stage where early intervention can affect outcome.

There are many tools for imaging the breast:

• X-ray Film Mammography

• X-ray Digital Mammography

• Ultrasound (2-D, 3-D, Elastography)

• Whole Breast Ultrasound

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging

• Radionuclide scans

• Xeromammography

• Computed Tomography

• Thermography

• Transillumination

• Electropotentials (for palpable lesions)

Although several new technologies on the horizon show promise for improved capability to detect breast cancer, none have yet proved superior to X-ray mammography in screening for breast cancer. In March 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council of the National Academies of America affirmed that despite its limitations, film mammography remained the “gold standard” against which all newer imaging technologies would be measured. It was only in 2005, where a large study reported in the New England Journal Of Medicine that digital mammography is now at least as good as x-ray film mammography and may be slightly better for dense breasts (relatively high proportion of glandular tissue to fat).

The latest recommendation (2002) from the U.S. Preventive Task Force is that every woman over the age of 40 should get a mammogram every one to two years.

Early Detection
Can Save Your
Life!

Although several new technologies on the horizon show promise
for improved capability
to detect breast cancer, none have yet proved superior to traditional,
X-ray film
mammography in screening for breast cancer.