Posts Tagged ‘Breast Cancer’

Research: A simple blood test capable of detecting breast cancer in woman

Breast cancer is a very dangerous form of cancer for woman, affecting a large number of them over the globe. There are multiple projects going to do early detection, along with finding out the risk factors that increase the chances of the breast cancer happening in some woman much more than others. For example, as woman reach middle age and become older, recommendations include checking for breast cancer on a regular basis. There is an effort to try and detect breast cancers when they are much smaller, so that the chance of a successful treatment that will happen much quicker and be less prolonged gets increased. Right now, existing tests are through checking for lumps (can be through a self-examination) or through a mammogram. Well, research is indicating that a simpler blood test that checks for certain chemicals in the blood may also be a much faster alternative (link to article):

Normal breast screening checks, using Xray mammograms, detect a tumour only once it is three or four times bigger, by which time it may have started to spread beyond breast. But, this test can pick up a cancer the size of a small seed before a woman has developed any symptoms. Developed by the scientists, led by Norwegian company Diagenic ASA, the test looks for raised levels of chemical “markers” for cancer picked up as blood flows through tumour, the ‘Sunday Express’ reported.
Dr James Mackay, an oncologist and researcher at University College London, is helping to launch the blood test for private patients. “This test will be particularly useful for younger women who are at risk of developing breast cancer. “They tend to have denser breasts which mammograms cannot easily penetrate. We are suggesting they have a mammogram and combine it with this test so that there is a greater chance of detection,” he said.

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Benefits and Risks Involved in Mammography

Mammography is a specific type of imaging that uses a low-dose x-ray system to examine breasts. A mammography exam, called a mammogram, is used to aid in the early detection and diagnosis of breast diseases in women.
Benefits of Mammography :
- Imaging of the breast improves a physician’s ability to detect small tumors. When cancers are small, the woman has more treatment options and a cure is more likely.
- The use of screening mammography increases the detection of small abnormal tissue growths confined to the milk ducts in the breast, called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). These early tumors cannot harm patients if they are removed at this stage and mammography is the only proven method to reliably detect these tumors. It is also useful for detecting all types of breast cancer, including invasive ductal and invasive lobular cancer.
- No radiation remains in a patient’s body after an x-ray examination.
- X-rays usually have no side effects in the diagnostic range.

Risks Involved in Mammography

- There is always a slight chance of cancer from excessive exposure to radiation. However, the benefit of an accurate diagnosis far outweighs the risk.
- The effective radiation dose from a mammogram is about 0.7 mSv, which is about the same as the average person receives from background radiation in three months. Federal mammography guidelines require that each unit be checked by a medical physicist every year to ensure that the unit operates correctly. See the Safety page for more information about radiation dose.
- False Positive Mammograms. Five percent to 15 percent of screening mammograms require more testing such as additional mammograms or ultrasound. Most of these tests turn out to be normal. If there is an abnormal finding, a follow-up or biopsy may have to be performed. Most of the biopsies confirm that no cancer was present. It is estimated that a woman who has yearly mammograms between ages 40 and 49 has about a 30 percent chance of having a false-positive mammogram at some point in that decade and about a 7 percent to 8 percent chance of having a breast biopsy within the 10-year period.
- Women should always inform their physician or x-ray technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant. See the Safety page for more information about pregnancy and x-rays.