The gold standard for breast disease screening – mammography

  With the continuous improvement of people’s living standard in China, the incidence of breast cancer has shown an obvious trend of increasing year by year. In China, breast cancer has leaped to the top of the list of female tumors, becoming the number one killer of women’s health. Mammography is currently the most effective and reliable means of breast disease diagnosis, and is widely used and rapidly promoted in clinical practice.  The latest research results of the American Cancer Society show that women over 40 years of age should insist on having one or two mammograms per year to diagnose and treat breast diseases early, which can significantly reduce the death rate of breast cancer. Mammography is currently the first choice and the easiest and most reliable non-invasive means of diagnosing breast diseases. It is relatively less painful, easy to perform, and has high resolution, good repeatability, and the images retained can be compared before and after, regardless of age and body shape. It can detect breast lumps that cannot be touched by doctors, especially for large breasts and fatty breasts, and its diagnostic accuracy can be as high as 95%. For patients with early stage breast cancer (called stage T0 breast cancer by breast professionals) whose only manifestation is microcalcifications and whose lumps cannot be touched by clinicians, they can only be detected and diagnosed early with mammography. Its diagnostic sensitivity for breast cancer is 82%~89% and specificity is 87%~94%, which is the highest positive rate among all adjuvant examinations. Multicenter studies at home and abroad show that the mortality rate of cases detected by breast screening decreases by 27%~32% after treatment, and the survival rate reaches more than 80% in 10 years. Therefore, every woman should be vigilant, prevent from the slightest and have regular breast checkups.  In order to provide more specialized services to patients with breast diseases, in August 2009, our hospital established the Breast Surgery Center and introduced the American Hologic Lorad Selenia panoramic digital breast imaging system during the same period, which not only can obtain more perfect digital images, but also can puncture and locate tiny lesions that cannot be reached with the cooperation of positioning devices, thus greatly improves the diagnosis and treatment of breast diseases. At present, this equipment is the most advanced and the only digital mammography machine in Taian and surrounding areas. Compared with ordinary X-ray, mammography can clearly record the X-ray images left by soft tissues with different penetrating ability, especially it can capture the tiny lesions with diagnostic significance for breast cancer, even the tiny lumps of 2mm~3mm can be shown. The images can be compared before and after, and are not restricted by age or body shape, so it is now used as a routine examination.  With the latest introduction of the most advanced digital mammography machine and positioning system, high-precision images can be obtained with only a small amount of radiation. The digital technology it possesses means that imaging is fast, images are clear, and radiologists can read the results on the screen immediately, improving diagnostic efficiency. In addition, the device can be expanded in the future with a prone biopsy system equipped with advanced software and hardware systems for accurate and reliable three-dimensional positioning.  Today, with the incidence of breast cancer increasing year by year, regular breast examinations are becoming more and more important to the public. Early detection and treatment can improve the cure rate, breast conservation rate and reduce the mortality rate. Experts suggest that annual routine examinations are necessary for women over 35-40 years old, and mammograms for patients with corresponding symptoms can more effectively assist in diagnosis and prevent problems before they occur. For nodes that cannot be reached by clinicians, so-called “occult breast cancer” and carcinoma in situ, early breast cancer can be detected two years earlier than by experienced physicians. The radiation dose is low and not harmful to human body. Even when the clinical diagnosis of breast cancer is clear, mammography should still be performed because it can help clarify the location of the tumor, the extent of tumor infiltration, the presence of multiple cancer foci, and the condition of the opposite breast, which is essential for clinicians to properly formulate treatment plans.  The mammography machine also has the following unique values: 1. it can be a relatively non-invasive examination method, which can reflect the general anatomy of the whole breast in a more comprehensive and correct way; 2. it can observe the influence of various physiological factors (such as menstrual cycle, pregnancy, breastfeeding, menstruation and endocrine changes, etc.) on the structure of the breast using X-ray examination, and can be used for dynamic observation; 3. it can be used to identify the breast structure more reliably. 4.According to X-ray examination, certain pre-cancerous lesions can be detected and can be observed by follow-up radiographs; 5.The breast CR system fundamentally reduces the shortcomings of traditional mammograms and greatly improves the diagnostic accuracy of mammograms, which is of great significance to the early diagnosis of breast lesions.  Mammography is comprehensive, intuitive, simple, safe and relatively inexpensive, and has become one of the best methods for routine clinical examination of breast diseases and preventive screening of breast cancer, which is of great value in detecting early cancer and improving the diagnostic compliance rate of breast lesions and the survival rate of patients.