The Diagno stic Imaging Department at St. Croix Regional Medical Center will begin providing digital mammograms on May 28 th to help doctors better diagnose and treat breast cancer.
Digital mammography is a valuable tool for situations where traditional film mammograms don't provide a clear picture and further evaluation is needed, especially when patients have:
* dense breast tissue
* multiple suspicious lesions or clusters of micro-calcifications
* lesions that can be felt but not detected by film mammography or ultrasound
* post-surgical or post-therapeutic mass
* implants
* been taking hormone replacement therapy.
Studies show that digital mammography does a better job detecting cancer in dense breasts than does traditional film mammography.
It's important to understand that mammograms are x-rays that reveal tissue densities, and until recently, traditional mammograms have been the most used tool to detect breast cancer and other breast abnormalities.
Dense breast tissue, however, can make film mammograms more difficult to interpret, though this does not mean they are useless for women with dense breasts. Mammogram x-rays do not penetrate--or "see through"--dense tissues as well as they do through fat. Tumors also are dense tissue and appear as solid white areas on the film. This can make it more difficult to detect tumors in dense breasts because they look a lot like the dense tissue that surrounds them. Hence in women with dense breasts, film mammograms are more difficult to interpret.
If you have dense breasts and your doctor detects a breast lump, he or she may recommend further evaluation of the lump--even if a mammogram is interpreted as normal. Additional tests may include an ultrasound, MRI, BSGI, and or removal of a small amount of tissue (biopsy) for examination under a microscope.
Breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death for women in the United States. Fortunately, death rates from breast cancer have been declining since 1990, and these decreases are believed to be the result, in part, of earlier detection and improved treatment.
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