Breast Cancer

Energize · 14 Feb 2009 at 23:57

The best mammograms are MRI and don't use radiation, the old x-ray mammograms will be replaced in the future.

goldilocks · 15 Feb 2009 at 00:12

Energize said:
The best mammograms are MRI and don't use radiation, the old x-ray mammograms will be replaced in the future.

mri isn't always a possibility
though i agree it may give better images in most cases you cannot take an mri scanner around remote communities to scan women who aren't able to make it into hospital (mobile mri kit is rare in the nhs!) - mri takes a considerably longer time to complete, meaning that either much more money/staff/kit has to be provided or that we reduce the range of women being scanned - and also mri would not be possible for women with pacemakers (etc etc)
so i imagine plain film mammography will continue for a good long while yet!

goldilocks · 15 Feb 2009 at 00:17

Jambo said:
Just for a bit of discussion but mammograms are very controversial and have been reported as being a possible cause of cancer.

Incidentally, I'm going to an all day course about cancer tomorrow and I think I will ask about this very issue.

i would like to know what your 'all day course on cancer' taught you about the risks of radiation induced breast cancer from mammograms?
if you are saying no to mammograms, are you also saying no to air travel and living in cornwall?! i think it's all about where you draw the line...

Jambo · 15 Feb 2009 at 00:43

goldilocks said:
i would like to know what your 'all day course on cancer' taught you about the risks of radiation induced breast cancer from mammograms?
if you are saying no to mammograms, are you also saying no to air travel and living in cornwall?! i think it's all about where you draw the line...

I am not saying no to mammograms.

Jambo said:
I'm not saying scrap all mammograms but there are loads of interesting statistics on this topic which do make you think.

I did ask the question at the course and she reckoned the chances were about 1 in 10,000. That article says 1 in 25,000. Whatever the figure is, I find it quite worrying. There are also significant issues of false positives and negatives.