Breast Cancer

Screening & Diagnosis for Breast Cancer

Survival is much higher when you pick up cancer in the early stages rather than the late stages. Performing screening is an effort to pick up breast cancer before there are any symptoms, so screening is the only for women who are not experiencing any kind of breast problems. The goal of screening exams for breast cancer is to identify cancers before they start to cause any symptoms. Early detection means using an approach or test that lets breast cancer get diagnosed earlier than otherwise might have occurred. Learning about Screening Tests and Diagnostic Tools for breast cancer is very important to kill the breast cancer in early stages. There are a number of ways to check for breast cancer. Some tests are basic; some are more invasive but provide more information. But all are vital to help detect this breast cancer disease in early.

Mammography is one of the most common screening test for breast cancer. A diagnostic mammogram is used to find breast disease in women who have breast symptoms or an abnormal result on a screening mammogram. Screening mammograms are used to look for breast disease in women who are asymptomatic; that is, those who appear to have no breast problems. The other types of screening and diagnostic tests are Biopsy, Sentinel node biopsy, Breast MRI and Breast Ultrasound.

Fig: Mammography: The breast is pressed between two plates. X-rays are used to take pictures of breast tissue.

Source: https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/patient/breast-treatment-pdq

The different breast cancer screening guidelines based on four distinct risk categories: women of moderate risk; women with at least one first-degree relative (i.e., parent or sibling) affected by breast cancer; women who have received a diagnosis of atypical hyperplasia (a form of benign breast disease) or lobular carcinoma in situ (cancers that are confined to the milk duct or lobule); and women with a history of mantle radiation (radiation received during treatment for Hodgkin disease).