Breast Screening Analysis

According to the American Cancer Society the current guidelines for breast screening are that women over the age of 40 should get a yearly mammogram. A clinical breast exam should be done every three years for women over the age of 20. Because breast screening is just a recommendation not all organizations recommend the same thing. For example, The U.S Preventive Services Task Force says that screening does not need to begin until age 50 and instead of every year, mammograms only need to be done every two years. Just doing a mammogram though is not always enough, because mammography has its flaws. Sandhya Pruthi, M.D.A says that a study done at Mayo Clinic showed that with these screening recommendations by ACR, women with early breast cancer …show more content…
Some other problems with conventional mammograms are it can miss cancer. In the article MRI-Guided Breast Biopsy By Mindy Goldfischer, MD “Because the density of breast carcinoma and surrounding normal breast tissue can be similar, conventional mammography can miss 20% to 25% of cancers” (Goldfische, 2010). In another study done by Harvard Women’s Health Watch, “Researchers followed 1,909 women for three years. Out of 45 breast cancers, MRI found 32 of these, 22 were not seen on a mammogram...” (MRI a valuable add-on to mammography for some women, pg.6).In younger women it is also hard to detect cancer because they have such dense breast tissue. Also, with mammography women are exposed to radiation. This is why the American Cancer Society also made a recommendation for women at high risk for breast cancer to also get an MRI …show more content…
According the article Breast Cancer Screening with imaging by Carol H. Lee she stated that “Several prospective trials of MRI screening of women at risk for familial breast cancer have shown increased detection of breast cancer with the use of this modality compared to mammographic screening” (Lee, pg. 23). It is a good diagnostic tool to be able to see breast cancer in women who have dense breast tissue. Dense breast tissue is usually seen in younger woman under the age of 40. This is also a better situation for them because MRI does not use radiation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a diagnostic exam that uses a combination of a large magnet, radio waves and a computer to produce detailed images of organs and structures within the body”(The John Hopkins Medicine). MRI can also scan women easier who have had breast implants or scar tissue that gives an inconclusive result with mammography. For a breast MRI the women will lay done prone with her breasts through two openings in the table for each breast. For a breast MRI contrast media is used to outline abnormalities and to have a clearer image of the