Is A CT Scan An Alternative To A Mammogram
For many woman the traditional mammogram is a painful experience. But it seems there may be hope on the horizon. According to the Washington Post the American Association of Physicists in medicine announced during their annual meeting that there could be a more comfortable method on the horizon.
When a mammogram is used there are two different ways that breast cancer can be seen – as a mass or as a microcalcification which is a spot. These spots can be a signal to the start of a tumor developing.
When a CT scan is used it rotates around the breast creating a 3D image of the breast. The breast isn’t compressed like in the painful mammogram. Instead you’ll simply lay on the table face down with one breast suspended through an opening and then you’ll change breasts.
So why aren’t we all getting CT scan’s rather than mammograms. Well at this point there’s still a bit of an issue. You see the CT scan does a far superior job of seeing a mass or tumor but it doesn’t do a great job of spotting microcalcifications.
Even still there’s plenty of hope here. The studies continue and there’s another prototype device that’s being tested. It combines a CT scanner and a PET (positron emission tomography). It’s exciting because the PET technology will be able to track any metabolic activity relating to the tumor which means it will be much easier to pinpoint and treat the tumor directly. This is very exciting news both from the perspective of diagnosing and treatment. However, remember it is still in the experimental stages so it could be 5 or more years before we see any of these changes reach women in society.
If we exclude skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. The death rate increases with age. 95% of all new cases of breast cancer are in women over the age of 40 and 97% of all cancer deaths are in women over the age of 40. White women have a high rate of breast cancer then other ethnic groups and death rates are lower in other ethnic groups.
Breast cancer is not a disease you should ignore. Women over the age of 40 need to be tested regularly and so that means enduring a mammogram. However, considering the alternative a mammogram doesn’t seem so bad after all, and who knows in the future testing could look much different.
