What is mammography?
Mamma is Latin for breast and mammography is a type of breast
X-ray that uses only a limited amount of radiation. It can
identify breast cancer in its early stages.
What are the benefits of mammography?
Because mammography can identify breast cancer in its early
stages, cancers detected in this way are smaller and therefore
more likely to be non-invasive than cancers detected by women
through self-examination. They are also less likely to have spread
to the lymph glands under the arm than cancers that present with
symptoms.
Who is given mammography?
Once a woman reaches the age of 50, she will be invited to take
part in a breast screening programme. In the UK, this means having
a mammogram every three years up to the age of 70. Because the
breast screening programme is a rolling one which invites women
from GP practices in your area in turn, not every woman will
receive an invitation as soon as she is 50. However, she will
always receive her first invitation before her 53rd birthday.
The aim of screening by mammography is to pick up cancer while it
is still small before it has a chance to spread.
If you are aged 70 or over, you have the right to be screened
every three years if you ask. All you need to do is phone or write
to your local breast screening unit to make an appointment or
visiting the screening van when it is inyour area.
There are various reasons why women are not normally screened
below the age of 50:
breast cancer is less common in younger women.
mammography is less likely to detect breast cancer in young women
because the breast tissue is denser, which can make breast cancer
much more difficult to detect.
there is no evidence that breast screening below the age of 50 is
cost effective.
However, young women who are at very high risk of developing
breast cancer because of their family history or because they have
had a biopsy that has shown a particular abnormality, are often
offered screening at an earlier stage in their lives. This is
usually by mammography and it is performed more regularly than in
older women. There are studies currently being carried out into
the effectiveness of other types of scans such as magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) in young high-risk women.
What do I need to know before the examination?
On the day of the examination patients should not use talcum
powder or cream around the area of the breast or armpit.
What happens during the examination?
The patient will be asked to undress to the waist and stand in
front of the X-ray machine. The radiographer will then position
each breast in turn between two Perspex plates so that it is
compressed and flattened. A brief pulse of X-ray is then used to
take images of each breast. Normally two images per breast are
taken on the first visit and one or two on every subsequent visit.
Some women find the experience uncomfortable and a few say it is
painful but for the majority there is no more than minor
discomfort. In any case, it is over very quickly.
What happens after the examination?
The X-ray film will be examined and the patient will be told the
results by their screening centre in about 10 days. A minority of
women will be asked to return for a second mammogram either
because something has shown up that requires further
investigation, or because there is a technical problem with the
first X-ray. Bear in mind that being recalled does not mean the
patient has breast cancer.
Of every 10,000 women who have a mammogram, 500 will be recalled
for assessment, 80 will need to have an operation and 60 will have
cancer. This means that just over 1in 10 of the women who are
recalled after the first mammogram for further investigation have
cancer.
How accurate is mammography?
Mammographic screening has a high sensitivity, and if a tumour is
present in a woman over the age of 50, it is very uncommon for
that tumour not to be detected by mammography.
Is mammography safe?
Modern screening equipment emits an extremely low dose of
radiation and the chances that a mammogram will cause a cancer to
develop is therefore extremely small. The benefits in terms of the
number of cancers detected far outweigh the small risks of
mammography.
Although there is a lot of very negative publicity about
screening, repeated studies have shown that the number of deaths
from breast cancer in the age group 50 to 64 are reduced by 40 per
cent in those who attend for breast screening.
Can mammography show whether a tumour is benign or malignant?
Mammograms are a good way of identifying abnormalities in the
breast but they don't always show whether those abnormalities are
benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Further tests are
sometimes necessary.
What further investigation may be necessary?
If a patient is recalled, then as well as further mammograms she
may require an ultrasound scan or a fine needle aspiration
cytology (FNAC).
Ultrasound, which is familiar to many women because it is used to
look at babies during pregnancy, can also be used in the breast to
tell whether a lump is fluid or solid. If an abnormal shadow is
seen on the mammogram, ultrasound is an accurate way of judging
whether any abnormality is benign and straight forward or whether
it is more likely to be serious.
Inserting a needle into the lump will show whether it is full of
fluid (a cyst) or solid. The needle can allow a sample of cells to
be removed for examination under the microscope and this is a very
accurate method of finding out whether the lump is benign or
malignant.
Because any abnormality in the breast may be so small that it is
impalpable, meaning that the doctor cannot feel it (impalpable),
there are techniques for allowing samples of such lesions to be
removed either using the mammogram machine or the ultrasound to
guide a needle into the area of abnormality.
If there is an abnormality on the mammogram but no lump to feel,
then by using either the X-ray machine or the ultrasound machine
it is possible to guide the needle into the area of abnormality
and to obtain enough cells or tissue to obtain a definite
diagnosis.
Sometimes these impalpable lesions need to be removed. This is
achieved by placing a hooked wire using the X-rays or ultrasound
to guide the wire into the tissue. The surgeon then follows the
wire to the end and removes the abnormal area.
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