BREAST CANCER
...they should have regular mammograms after the age of 40, recent studies show the opposite. According to task force documents, the strongest evidence of mammogram effectiveness are among women ages 50 to 69. (Landers) The reason for this is that women under the age of 50, in other words pre-menopausal women, tend to have denser breast tissue than older women. This makes mammograms more difficult to read. If a woman has high breast density, this means that there is a chance she might have cancerous tissue in the breast. (Fry) But what most women do not know and which doctors tend to leave out is that mammography is a form of ionizing radiation. Radiation is a known cause of cancer, and the effects of small amounts may accumulate in the body. This does not mean you should never have an x-ray, but rather that you should be thoughtful of your exposure to radiation. (Love) Most mammograms actually deliver a small fraction of that amount and a woman must carefully weigh the risks of not having mammograms against that of this small radiation exposure. (Lyman) I believe that as effective as the FDA and other federal government investigations say mammograms are, the only reason that they say this is because mammogram screenings are the only test doctors have in detecting breast cancer, which many doctors have stated in their research, such as Dr. Joann Elmore, the first author of the Journal of the National Cancer Institution. (Associated Press) If the claims from the FDA are correct, then why are there so many studies that prove the opposite on its effectiveness. A study by Dr. Charlotte S. Grayson shows that mammograms are only 85 to 90% accurate. According to the American Cancer Society, the best way to detect breast cancer is to use all three methods of exams. The accuracy of mammograms also depends on the skill of the technologists who position the breast during screenings as well as the doctor who examines the x-rays. This then leads to mammograms of “false negative” and “false positive” results. A “false negative” result is when a mammogram fails to reveal a cancer that is actually present in your breast. “False negative” results are most common in women who have dense breast tissue. According to some experts, the overall “false negative” results for mammograms are about ten percent. These types of results leave women with denser breast tissue with a false sense of security because they believed that mammograms are supposed to detect cancer, not hide it. What does this really mean? Basically, experts are saying that doctors might not always detect the cancer the first or second time, who knows, maybe it will take up to the fifth screening before a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. (Helios Health) So, what are women supposed to do? Just imagine the possibility of living with breast cancer for up to five years without knowing. That’s when Dr. Thomas Kolb, a radiologist in New York City comes in, who has his own practice on East 68 Street. He believes that using ultrasound as a second test; along with mammogram screenings, detects more than 50 percent of cancers, than just using mammograms alone. (Interview) His new study shows exactly that. Ultrasound can actually improve breast cancer detection for women with dense breast tissue. In a mammogram, regular breast tissue appears dark, where as dense breast look completely white, which makes the cancer very hard to detect. But once you use ultrasound, the cancer appears as a black area on a white background. This study has been tested on over 11,000 women, and has been shown to be effective. But one must remember that the key in using ultrasound is breast density. (Bazell) Another problem with mammograms in detecting cancer are “false positive” findings. This means that a radiologist can find a white spot on a mammogram, have the patient come back for a biopsy, only to find that it was nothing. Biopsies are tissue samples taken from the breast that involves minor surgery. This breast tissue is then tested in the laboratory to see if it is cancerous. (Food and Drug Administration) According to the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, 80 percent of women...