Sunday, May 8, 2011

Is Mammography equally sensitive to all Women?


Mammography is one of the widely used investigation modality of breast cancer. But is it equally sensitive to all the women. The answer is “No” due to several reasons. That is because the detection rate of a breast cancer depends on so many factors. Some of them are listed below.

·         The size, stage and grade of the tumor.
·         The age of the woman – As a women’s age increases the breast also gets changed. Reduction of the density of the breast tissue is one such change. This is good news for old women because the reduction of the density increases the sensitivity of mammography. However it is a bed news for younger women whose breasts are more denser than the old ones.

Occurrence of breast cancer in young age is very rare and therefore, the risks probably go down. For them ultrasound scan is very useful in investigating any breast apthology.

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