How about getting a Diagnosis for Breast Cancer

If your mass was not watched on a mammogram, generally your doctor’s first step after physically testing a lump or other symp­tom is to put in an order for a specific set of images, called a diag­nostic mammogram. This series of films will include two images of each breast. Additional images of the area involving the mass are also taken. Mammograms cater data about the position and size of the freakishness.
Studies expressed by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre­vention show that among adult females who undergo routine screening, a mammogram generally detects tumors 1.7 years before they can be felt by hand. Mammograms also spot the tiniest of le­sions, together with the malignant growths known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). These growths are composed of abnormal cells in the lining of a milk duct. And while they can grow to a size that you or your medico might be able to feel as a lump, for many women these clusters are so small that it takes mammography to bring them into view. See Figure 1 to see the average tumor size found using dif­ferent detection methods.
Dr. Lloyd B. Greig, a gynecologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Cen­ter in Los Angeles, says that to obtain the best possible images a breast must be compressed to flatten it somewhat during a mam­mogram. To do this, a technician must place the breast on the machine’s lower metal platform. The upper one, which is made of see-through resilient, is then relieved downward to compress the breast, allowing the image to be taken. Although women have remarked that some technicians can be too aggressive with compression, Dr. Greig says few patients have quetched of severe pain after the pro­cedure. “The compression is necessary to get the full diagnostic value of the mammogram,” he explains. “If this weren’t done, then an abnormalcy could be missed. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much time, just a few seconds. So that’s a few seconds of irritation for taking the right steps. A diagnostic mammogram is a very important part of developing the right selective information about the abnormality.”
For most patients, Dr. Greig continues, the initial visits to a doctor will be to a primary care doctor—a family practitioner, in­ternist, or gynecologist—who will not only facilitate you realize early suspicions But also get you started on the path to additional testing. Some women, he says, find it easier to pose questions and voice fears to someone they’ve known for numerous years. “We are familiar with the patients,” he says. “We’ve known them, sometimes for numerous, many years. So we can answer a lot of their questions. This is a very diffi­cult time, and we know that it is important for patients to feel as comfortable as possible—and as confident as possible—as they face their next steps.”
Among these initial steps, he tells patients, is the need for the taking of a complete Medical history, during which the following se­ries of questions is asked:
❖ Is there a history of breast cancer in your family?
❖ What about other forms of cancer?
❖ Have you noticed a discharge or anything else unusual about either breast?
A complete physiological examination also is required. Such simple steps are pivotal, Dr. Greig says, as patients make progress toward obtaining a definitive diagnosis.
At Cedars Sinai, he and other gynecologists work closely with Medical Specialists in the Medical center’s breast-care center, where all types of breast conditions are diagnosed. A vast number of growths de­tected on mammograms turn out to be benign, according to Dr. Greig. And even when an abnormal­ity turns out to be cancer, a mammo-A Primer on Prevalence gram—an X ray—cannot determine According to the American whether a tumor has spread to a dis-cancer Society, an forecasted tant site, such as the bones, liver, or 211,000 cases of attacking breast cancer are diagnosed lungs. Laboratory tests as well as ad ditional imaging processes, such as a ductogram, ultrasound, or MRI may be needed to better visualize age fifty or older. Women who your lesion. have been consistently screen-A mammogram provides a pic-ed from age forty onward tend to have smaller cancers at the
The radiologist who reads your mammogram will be the first physician to view the contours of the mass and to measure where it is situated in the breast. The radi­ologist, even so, does not have the final word on whether the abnor­mality seen on the mammogram is cancerous. Any suspicions must be confirmed by laboratory testing.
In the process of diagnosis, each advancing step either confirms or rejects suspicions from the previous step. The linchpin in the di­agnostic process is the biopsy, a test in which a small amount of tis­sue is removed from the breast to be closely examined in the laboratory.