How do I understand the grading of the Breast Imaging Reporting Data System (BI-RADS)?

       Many patients who have had breast ultrasound or mammography see the BI-RADS classification (classification) findings in the examination report and are unsure of what to expect, so here is a brief introduction.  The Breast Imaging Reporting And Data System (BI-RADS) is a diagnostic breast imaging standard developed by the American College of Radiology, which has been revised several times and is now widely used in clinical practice.  The reason for adopting (BI-RADS) is that a considerable number of breast tumors, especially early-stage tumors, lack performance in imaging examinations (mammography, ultrasound) or have only some non-specific appearances, which cannot confirm the diagnosis and are easily missed and misdiagnosed.  (BI-RADS) graded diagnosis is the risk probability diagnosis of breast malignancy given by the imaging professional after comprehensive evaluation of the examination images for disease diagnosis, and the main purpose is to facilitate clinicians to make decisions on further examination and treatment.  (The different meanings of the BI-RADS grading are as follows: Grade 0 indicates that the patient needs to provide similar examination images in the past for comparison, or re-examination, or further use of other examination methods.  Grade 1 Normal, no lesions are present.  Grade 2 There are lesions that can be identified as benign breast masses (e.g., fibroadenoma, fibrolipid adenoma, lipoma, simple cyst, cumulus cyst, cumulus oilus cyst), and benign calcifications (e.g., circumferential calcifications, short well-defined strips of calcifications, coarse speckled calcifications, sparse, relatively single sized dotted calcifications, crescent-shaped sedimentary calcifications, etc.).  Grade 3 Basically benign breast lesions with a very low probability of being malignant (<2%), patients need to be followed up with regular checkups.  Grade 4 Possibly malignant, or a lesion that requires biopsy to rule out malignancy, patients need to undergo pathological biopsy as soon as possible to confirm the diagnosis.  Grade 5 Breast cancer with characteristic imaging presentation that confirms the diagnosis.  Grade 6 Breast cancer that has been confirmed by pathologic biopsy.