Myth and truth about breast cancer

Is it true that the primary prevention of breast cancer does not exist? And half of surveys for which we tout ads for the diagnosis of breast disease has nothing to do?

- Many believe that the prevention of breast diseases sufficiently checked by a gynecologist or general practitioner ...
- Only mammologist - a specialist in the field of disease diagnosis was breast cancer, and not anything else! In order to determine pathology, must have expertise in this area of ​​medicine and a great experience. And it's not all: the right strategy diagnosis can also choose only mammologist.

- In advertising, every now and then hear a prompt to action on breast cancer screening with thermal imaging equipment, electronic briefcase, computer tomography. Should we trust them?
- Complete rubbish! About the first two places I generally keep quiet, but even the CT scanner, which is actually used for the diagnosis of many diseases, the diagnosis of pathological processes in the breast has nothing to do. Type of diagnostic mammologist chooses, identifying high risk women. First collected history, that is, find out the age, whether in the family disease of the breast and other individual characteristics. As a rule, up to 35 years is sufficient to palpation and ultrasonography. With horror, we hear that some women under 35 years referred for a mammogram - it makes no sense at this age! Send it, usually after 45 years of age is at risk. If by history likelihood of breast cancer is high, at our center, the only one in Kazan, making genetic analysis of an inherited cancer. The risk of cancer in these women is extremely high. Inherited cancer in our region is 3 - 4% of all malignant breast disease. It is clear that the tactics of diagnosis and prevention of these women have special parameters.

- Please tell us about the primary prevention of ...
- This does not exist! Primary prevention - something that can prevent cancer. But such methods modern science of radiology does not know! Advice on proper nutrition, avoidance of harmful habits, timely delivery and breast-feeding, of course, good and welcome. But to prevent occurrence of cancer, they can not. The main thing - to find the formation of tumors at an early stage. Then the recovery is guaranteed 100%. And the treatment itself in a less aggressive and traumatic than in the later stages. Therefore, the only prevention of breast cancer - secondary prevention. In other words, early treatment of mastitis, or benign tumors.

- Who is at risk?
- The first woman of 45 years. Second, the emergence of the disease affects estrogen (hormone), the load that a woman receives throughout life. That is, the more years of continued menstruation and late menopause, the greater the risk. Third, the presence of close who have had breast cancer. These are the main risk factors. Others - late delivery, non-breastfeeding, smoking and so on. If they can influence the occurrence of cancer, it is only in the complex. Their evidence is not proved.

Mammography as a risk factor

Regular mammography does not decrease but increases the number of annual cases of breast cancer diagnosis, followed by a less painful for the ladies mastectomy.

According to data provided by Norwegian researchers, from the beginning of the use of mammography for breast cancer in the mid-1990s of the last century the number of cases, followed by a mastectomy, has increased significantly.

As counted specialists for women who were mammograms, the risk of breast amputation because of developing breast cancer increases by almost 31 percent, compared to their peers who abstain from the passage of this diagnostic procedure.

With Mammograms, Timing May Matter - WebMD

For Women Who Get Regular Mammograms, Scheduling the First Week of Cycle Seems Best, Study Finds

Dec. 14, 2010 -- Women who have regular mammograms should consider paying attention to when they are scheduled. New research finds the timing of mammograms could affect the accuracy of results.

''Try to schedule it during the first week of your menstrual cycle," says researcher Diana Miglioretti, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, who led the study. "The first day of your menstrual cycle is the day you start to bleed."

But she adds: "I don't want women to stress too much over this, if they can't get in."

Her study does show, however, that timing of mammograms can make a difference for women who regularly get them. For some reason, the timing did not seem to have the same effect on accuracy in the women studied who were getting their first mammogram, Miglioretti tells WebMD.

The study is published online in the journal Radiology.

Previous studies have looked at the timing of mammograms, Miglioretti says. Some experts have found that accuracy might be better in the first half of the cycle.

Other research has shown that breast density may be lower during the first half of the cycle. "We know breast density strongly affects mammography performance," she says. If a woman has a lot of dense tissue, it's more difficult to find cancer.

Miglioretti and her colleagues examined 387,218 mammograms from women aged 35 to 54 who got the screenings from 1996 through 2007. The data were retrieved from six National Cancer Institute-funded Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium mammography registries.

None of the women had a history of breast cancer, breast augmentation, or mastectomies. The images were interpreted by more than 770 radiologists.

In all, 1,283 of the mammograms were linked to breast cancer cases.

The researchers took into account when the women had the mammograms and whether it was their first or not. They found that for women who had already had a screening mammogram in the past two years, the sensitivity -- the number of true positive findings -- was highest in those who had the mammograms the first week of their cycle. ''It was about 80% the first week," Miglioretti says.

By weeks two, three, and four, it was 67% to 73%. Put another way, Miglioretti tells WebMD, ''it raised the chance of catching the cancer 7 to 13 percentage points" by having the mammogram during week one of the cycle.

They found no effect of the timing of mammograms on false positives -- when you get called back for something that looks suspicious but turns out to be nothing to worry about.

''It's a little bit surprising," Miglioretti says, "because breast density is associated with false positives."

Then came another surprise: women who were having their first screening mammogram and had it during the first week of their cycle had less sensitivity than if they scheduled it later in the cycle. It's not clear why.

View the original article here