Using Technology To Detect Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women. One in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, and there are often no signs that something is wrong until the cancer is more advanced and a mass is felt in the breast.

This is why getting your routine breast screening is so important. Routine imaging can help find cancers when they are small and treatable, and Middlesex Hospital uses technology, such as 3D mammography and molecular breast imaging, to help screen patients for breast cancer.

Over a one-year period, nearly 22,000 women receive mammograms at a Middlesex Hospital facility. Shown to detect 40 percent more invasive breast cancers than the 2D test, the Hospital, with the help of donations from the Women's Wellness Fund, is working to replace all its 2D mammography machines with 3D machines. Mammograms are often used in conjunction with dual-headed molecular breast imaging, which uses a radioactive tracer to better detect breast cancer cells. Together, these tests give patients the best possible chance at early detection.

In addition to feeling a mass in the breast, signs of breast cancer include:

• The dimpling or puckering of the skin, swelling, or a change of the size of the breast
• Bloody nipple discharge, persistent rash, or redness of the breast
• A change in the appearance of the nipple

Risk factors include:

• A strong family history of breast cancer, especially if a family member was younger than 50
• A family history of ovarian cancer
• A prior personal history of breast cancer or breast atypia (abnormal cells on a biopsy)
• A known family history of a genetic mutation that increases the likelihood of developing breast cancer (BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 are most common)
• A history of chest wall radiation between the ages of 10 and 30 years old (was a treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma)
• Early menarche
• Late menopause
• No history of pregnancy