A mammogram has been an effective means of diagnosing breast cancer. It has helped in the early detection of breast cancer which makes treatment more effective before cancer becomes deadly.
Meanwhile, certain factors make the mammogram prone to false results in some cases. Small breast density makes it difficult to interpret mammograms in young women. Also, unnecessary treatments lead to a lack of differentiation of the breast cells, providing false results.
Doctors have commenced new trials to fix the long-running suspicions that the NHS Breast Screening
Programme is prone to false alarms and misses cases in some women. Now, women are invited for their
first mammogram at the age of 40 instead of the initial 50 -70 years. Also, they would be offered a series
of tests to deduce the risk score of each individual, instead of one scan. Women who are at low risk will
not have to go back for breast screening for another 4 years, while women at high risk will be invited for
more frequent scans in early detection once cancer sets in. This method is more accurate and picks up
cancer at the earliest stages, even before the lumps can be felt. This makes treatment more efficient.
Another innovative method has been approved in New York for detecting cancer early. This method,
called Galleri, is the only blood test that can detect 50 different types of cancer, including about 45
cancers that had never been screened for. According to Dr Whitney Jones, a gastroenterologist and
Senior Medical Director at GRAIL, where the Galleri test was invented, "This is going to shake up the
world of cancer in a positive way. Galleri can not replace annual mammogram and prostate examinations, but is an added tool for early diagnosis of cancer. Galleri will detect 70% of asymptomatic cases, saving about 100,000 lives per year.
The best way to deal with cancer is to detect it early. Therefore, we hope these new inventions and many more upcoming ones will drastically reduce the number of deaths due to cancer.
At MedBioTechLab, we offer blood screenings that detect the most common types of cancer. Visit us for yourearly diagnosis, don’t wait till it gets too late.
