Breast Cancer - Early Detection is Important to Women’s Health By Phillip Dye At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Most women know that keeping an eye on their breasts is essential to their health and well being. By doing monthly breast exams, women get an idea of how their breasts are supposed to look and feel. When something feels out of the ordinary, they will likely turn to their physician for an official diagnosis. Their physician will then conduct a breast exam and then order other tests. These include: MRIs, ultrasounds, mammograms and PET scans.

Any one of these tests can cause great anxiety for a woman. They are already worried about what could be wrong with their breasts. However, each one of these tests is vital to their health for three reasons.

- It helps to detect breast cancer in its early stages. That’s when breast cancer can be treated the most.

- It helps doctors determine and design a plan of action that is best for the woman’s needs.

- It helps doctors determine how to go about with the patient’s ongoing care.

To fight breast cancer, there are two testing stages: screening tests and diagnostic tests.

First, screening tests involve a yearly physical exam and mammogram. These are done during a woman’s annual physical exam. Often times, a woman with breast cancer will not exhibit any signs of the disease in its early stages thus screening tests are vital in finding and diagnosing the illness.

What is a mammogram? A mammogram is an X-ray machine and is usually the first tool used by doctors to locate breast cancer. For women ages 50 and over, mammograms have been able to reduce the number of women with breast cancer from dying by 35 percent. When women ages 40 to 50 years old get mammograms, their chances are also lowered by 25 percent to 35 percent. When the disease is found in its early stages by a mammogram, women have a greater chance of keeping their breasts instead of needing a mastectomy which can scar a woman for years to come.

Second, diagnosis testing involves more advanced technology devices including a magnetic resonance imaging machine or better known as the MRI and ultrasound. Doctors may also do bone scans and blood tests to get full confirmation of the illness.

What is a MRI? A MRI machine utilizes magnetic fields to obtain pictures of the body. When a doctor orders tests on a woman’s breast, technicians will use a breast coil to keep it in place. When a MRI is being done, the patient must lie absolutely still during the procedure. There are many advantages to using the MRI to detect breast cancer but it is also very expensive and can cause some metal objects in the body to move.

What is an ultrasound? An ultrasound uses sound waves of high frequency to give doctors a picture of the breast. Ultrasounds are usually done after a breast lump is found. It will allow the doctor to determine if the lump is firm. Yet, this device cannot give doctors the pertinent, need to know information on what kind of lump it is. That is… if the lump is benign or malignant . Ultrasounds can help doctors with biopsy needles by using it to guide the needle directly to the suspicious tissue.

It’s very important that women are screened and tested each year so they increase their chances of surviving this deadly disease.

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