When you think of screening for breast cancer you tend to
think of mammography,
the gold standard. The great thing about mammography is the fact that most of
the time it will discover tumors, it doesn’t matter if they are benign, malign,
or what the stage is. The difficulty is in the density of the breast, the
denser the breast tissue, the more difficult to detect a lesion. Part of the
concern with this difficulty is that while the tumor will be discovered, there
is a definite chance that the tumor itself will likely be at an advanced stage.
According to some, a possible solution is the breast MRI. The problem with the
breast MRI is that it’s currently priced in a very high range. Part of the
difficulty that a lot of patients have is the cost of certain procedures varies
from area to area. Even with better coverage there is the concern of high biopsy
rates. Still even with all of these concerns there is a belief that the breast
MRI will become the gold standard for finding tumors.
While this idea may well be a serious possibility, it’s
important to note that before the breast MRI becomes a gold standard in terms
of advocacy, pricing has to change. Even after pricing has changed, it is
crucial that people performing the breast MRI can prove through studies and
patient history that the breast MRI is as effective as and more effective than
the mammography.
In the end there is another concern that centers on the
length of time that the mammography has been around in comparison to a breast
MRI. The MRI has been around about twenty years less than the mammography. It
will be interesting to see how heavily advocacy groups will try to monitor the
breast MRI as compared to the mammography.
If you have any questions about diagnostic imaging procedures such
as the MRI, or mammography please
feel free to give us a call. Our team of dedicated and experienced imaging
professionals here at Clermont Radiology looks forward to answering your
questions and aiding you in all your diagnostic imaging needs.
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