Think Pinker

Every day a women is diagnosed with breast cancer, and the earlier that diagnosis is the better chance she has of making a full recovery. According to Sunday Monitor MRI technology when alternated at six month intervals with mammography can do a much better job of detecting breast cancer than just mammography.

That’s because MRI’s are much more sensitive and they can detect breast with a 70% to 100% accuracy where as mammography alone has only a 15% to 40% accuracy rate.

If you are in the high risk group you should discuss with your doctor the combining of these two diagnostic options to ensure you have the best chance of having breast cancer diagnosed early.

There are four stages to breast cancer and the further along you are in the stages the more difficult it is to eradicate the cancer from your body and for you to get a clean bill of health.

The MRI is also more likely to catch invasive ductal carcinomas, lobular carcinomas, and ductal carcinomas in situ. Now that said, the MRI is not foolproof either and in the study it did miss a one millimetre tumour. Just another reason why you should use as many screening practices as possible and that includes self exams done monthly, mammograms done annually, and MRI’s done every six months. After all you want to give yourself the best chance for a full recovery.