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Breast Cancer Screening
What is a Breast Cancer Screening?
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Breast cancer Screening is looking for signs of disease, such as breast cancer, before a person has symptoms. The goal of the gynecologist is to find cancer at an early stage when it can be treated and may be cured. Sometimes a screening test finds cancer that is very small or very slow growing. These cancers are unlikely to cause death or illness during the person's lifetime.
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Scientists are trying to better understand which people are more likely to get certain types of cancer. For example, they look at the person's age, their family history, and certain exposures during their lifetime. This information helps the provider recommend who should be screened for cancer, which screening tests should be used, and how often the tests should be done.
What is a Mammogram?
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A Mammography is the most common screening test for breast cancer. It is an x-ray picture of the breast. Mammography may find tumors that are too small to feel. It may also find ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). In DCIS, abnormal cells line the breast duct, and in some women may become invasive cancer.
A Mammography is less likely to find breast tumors in women with dense breast tissue. Because both tumors and dense breast tissue appear white on a mammogram, it can be harder to find a tumor when there is dense breast tissue. Younger women are more likely to have dense breast tissue​
If a screening test result is abnormal, you may need to have more tests done to find out if you have cancer. These are called diagnostic tests, rather than screening tests.
