Here's an interesting article by Dr. Douglas:

New breast exam more accurate than mammogram

Dear Friend,

For years I've bemoaned the barbarity and ineffectiveness of mammography as a breast cancer screening. But new studies show that a new and more accurate screening method could be right around the corner.

The new technique is called molecular breast imaging (MBI), and it's been found to catch three times the number of breast cancer cases as mammography. It's said to be especially effective for women with denser breast tissue who are usually at a higher risk for developing the disease.

MBI works by first injecting the patient with a radiotracer which helps to track the behavioral difference between cancerous tissue and normal tissue. One study using MBI found 10 of 13 cancer cases in a sample group of 375 patients. In the same group, mammography found just three of those 13 cancers.

According to the study author Carrie B. Hruska, a radiology researcher at the Mayo Clinic, "MBI detected more cancers than screening mammography, but didn't produce more false positive results."

Obviously, this is encouraging news. MBI was also found to have a higher percentage of biopsies that resulted in the discovery of an actual cancer (28 percent with MBI compared with 18 percent with mammography). What's more, MBI is also relatively inexpensive.

All of this is terrific, right? Unfortunately, it's not all rainbows and butterflies. Because if you ask me, there is one glaring problem with MBI: researchers are proposing that it be used only as an adjunct to mammography, not as a replacement.

I was very excited at the outset of this research, because I was hoping that MBI could mean the beginning of the end of mammography. In spite of years of being the most "popular" and well-known form of breast cancer screening, the fact remains that mammography just doesn't work that well.

The problem is that mammograms are thought to be an "early warning system" for breast cancer, when nothing could be further from the truth. Mammograms seem only to be able to detect the larger tumors of breast cancer's more advanced stages. So often when a woman has a mammogram come up positive, her disease has a deadly head start.

Also, and even more disturbing, is the fact that excessive compression of the breast (like during a routine mammogram) can actually break apart cancerous cell masses and CAUSE THE DISEASE TO SPREAD to other organs.

Mammography also results in a high number of "false positive" results – the kind that lead to women being butchered with needless biopsy procedures. Remember how MBI found 10 percent more cases of REAL cancer (28 percent compared to mammography's 18 percent)? That doesn't seem like a lot – unless you're one of the women who had a needlessly biopsy because of a false positive from a mammogram!

Unfortunately, MBI is still not widely available. And since mammography is so entrenched in the healthcare community, it's not going anywhere soon – even if the MBI technique becomes more widespread. So once again thanks to slow-footed medicine, this promising method is years from saving the lives that it seems to have to potential to save.

Copyright (c)2008 by www.douglassreport.com, L.L.C. To start receiving your own copy of the Daily Dose, visit:
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I believe they should replace it with mbi. i had a test done not to long ago and they claim that the lump in my right breast is just premenopas I'm 33 yrds and they say the cist in my left breast is nothing to worry about. but yet they say cists are suppose to hurt mine doesn't and i never knew it was there. well i still have the lump on my right side of my right breast and it has not gone away. it's been there since april of this year and i'm suppose to take sodium tablets to  help it. well they don't work and i will be getting a second opinion. so i think they should replace the old technique cause I'm at high risk for breast cancer it runs in my family. and they tell me not to worry..

The old system of checking for breast cancer causes cancer far as i am concearned,and my wife says the same and will not have it done because she says it hurts when they compress your breasts,

Hi Ted,

I read that article from Dr. Douglass, too. It is difficult to know what to do. On the one hand, perhaps mammograms are actually harmful, but on the other hand, we also don't want to miss a possible tumor.

Any woman who has had them (or at least most women, as I know of one who said it didn't hurt) know how painful and awkward a mammogram is, each and every time you have one. I always say that the plates used should be round, not flat. They feel as if they were designed as a torture device.

Anyway, I hope there will eventually be a less painful, more accurate way to detect breast cancer, one that can take the place of mammograms.

DonnaZ

To A Friend

To A Survivor

 

 

I feel the rain of cold sweat run down my back,

as I sit in a gown of pure white

Knuckles hurting with a fire burning pain,

as I sit waiting in total fright

 

The doctor’s lips move slowly,

as I try to make out the answer

The only word which invades my ears,

is the dreaded word "Cancer"

 

The images that must go through one's mind,

is a question I have many times thought

Fighting back the fear,

an answer from the Holy Father I sought

 

All my friends and family,

have helped make me be a striver

And because of their combined love,

I am now a cancer survivor.

 

 

Dedicated To A Special Lady

By

Nick Sym