Mammograms are an important tool for breast cancer screening and diagnosis. They can detect cancer before you notice any symptoms by utilizing low-dose X-rays to indicate abnormal (noncancerous or benign) areas or tissues in your breast. Schedule an appointment with a mammography clinic Boise for more information.
What is a mammogram?
Mammography is a low-dose X-ray of the breast. Mammograms, or mammography, are used by healthcare practitioners to detect early indicators of breast cancer before symptoms appear. This is known as screening mammography. Providers also use mammography to search for abnormalities if you develop a new symptom, such as a lump, soreness, nipple discharge, or changes in the skin of your breast. This is referred to as diagnostic mammography.
Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women, accounting for 14% of all new cancer diagnoses in the United States. While breast cancer treatment methods are improving and have decreased cancer-related mortality, early detection with screening mammography has a stronger overall influence on survival rates.
The majority of mammography results are benign or noncancerous. In reality, less than one in every ten women who require extra tests following mammography has cancer.
Accuracy of mammograms
Mammography screening is effective at detecting breast cancer, especially in women over the age of 50.
Mammography has an overall sensitivity of roughly 87 percent. This means that mammography properly identifies around 87 percent of breast cancer patients.
Ladies over 50 have stronger sensitivity than younger ladies. It is also more common in women with fatty breasts than those with thick breasts.
False posotive rwsukts
One disadvantage of missing relatively few tumors is the possibility of false positive findings (when screening mammography reveals an abnormal finding that might be cancer when there is no cancer in the breast).
The more mammograms a woman gets, the more likely she is to have a false positive result that necessitates more testing.
Depending on your age, the likelihood of a false positive result after one mammography ranges from 7 to 12 percent (younger women are more likely to have a false positive result). After ten annual mammograms, the likelihood of at least one false positive result is around 50-60%.
Younger women and women with thick breasts are more likely to get a false positive result. (Because most women under 50 have thick breasts, there is some overlap between these categories.)
It is natural to feel anxious or concerned if you are asked back to check on an abnormal finding on your mammogram. False positive results, however, are prevalent. The majority of women who are called back do not have breast cancer.
