Which method of screening on breast cancer is better

Scientists have compared the ways of screening on breast cancer

Photo: Milkos/Depositphotos

Women who have a dense breast have an increased risk of breast cancer, but when screening, they are much more difficult to detect.

Scientists have found that mammography with contrast can simplify diagnosis for such women. This type of examination is much better detected by neoplasms than more common ultrasound.

This is stated in a study that Posted in The LANCET, writes The New York Times.

In the course of work, scientists compared the effectiveness of different methods of diagnosis of cancer in women with dense breast tissue – MRI, ultrasound and mammography with and without contrast.

Women’s breasts fold out of three types of fabrics:

• fibrous that holds the breast stationary;
• Milk -producing glandular;
• fat that fills the space between the first two and gives breasts size and shape.

Breast density means the relationship between fibrous and glandular tissue, compared to fat. This can only be determined by mammography.

Scientists believe that a dense breast has about half of women aged 40 years of age. For such patients, common mammography and ultrasound are less effective to diagnose cancer, since they do not detect tumors because of their high density.

All because the tumors in the pictures look white spots. The same color denotes a dense breast tissue.

In a new study, scientists have analyzed medical records of more than 9 thousand women aged 50 to 70 years old, who have been checked in various ways of screening.

Scientists have found that diagnosis with contrast (the introduction of a special substance with iodine into the blood) can detect three times more invasive types of cancer in a dense breast than ultrasound.

In addition, this method helps to find much smaller formations than thanks to ordinary mammography.

« When (in the picture) a lot of white breast is difficult to see white cancer formations. But thanks to tumor contrast absorb iodine and cancer is visible better »– explained the leading author of the study of Fiona Gilbert.

Cancer has been established most of them due to MRI, but this method is less accessible and much more expensive than everyone else.

« Mammography with contrast should become the standard treatment of women with dense breasts »– says the scientist.

We will remind, in the World Health Organization (WHO) forecastthat by 2050 the number of cases of breast cancer will increase by 38%.