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Eleni Faliakou, Breast Surgeon and Director of the 2nd Breast Clinic of MITERA highlights the importance of regular monitoring of breast health by women of all ages, depending on the recommendations, underlining the value of preventive screening and early diagnosis in effective treatment of breast cancer
THE early diagnosisthat is, the diagnosis of a breast tumor when it is in its initial stages, before it gives symptoms, is extremely important, because then the chances of effective treatment and a cure are high.
In order to achieve an early diagnosis, women should undergo “screening breast imaging”i.e. appropriate imaging tests, depending on their age, breast density and family history.
Screening with imaging tests and self-examination can help to achieve an early diagnosis.
Breast self-examination
Regarding breast self-examination, today we consider it important for a woman to do a self-examination and know the texture of her breast, but we place more importance on imaging tests, which allow us to diagnose lumps of a few millimeters that are usually too small to feel .
For a woman to detect a breast tumor by palpation, it must be about two centimeters, a tumor size that is not considered small, especially when now, with modern imaging methods, we can detect tumors even just a few millimeters in diameter.
Imaging tests
Breast imaging tests are digital mammography or the digital tomosynthesis (the three-dimensional mammography), the breast ultrasound and the magnetic resonance imaging. The choice of the appropriate imaging test or tests and their frequency are now individualized according to the woman’s age, her breast density, and her family and personal history.
Thus, a woman is considered to have the risk of the general population, i.e. she does not belong to a high-risk group, when:
- she has not been diagnosed with breast cancer herself
- has no family history of breast or ovarian cancer
- does not have an inherited mutation in genes that increase the chance of getting breast cancer
- has not had radiation therapy to the chest before the age of thirty
For women these recommendations are:
- From age 20 to age 40, self-examine and undergo an ultrasound and clinical breast exam every three years.
- Women aged 40-44 are given the option of having a mammogram annually or every two years.
- For women aged 45-54 the recommendation is an annual mammogram.
- Women over 55 have the option of continuing annual mammograms, but they can also have a mammogram every two years.
Screening does not stop as long as a woman is in good health and has a life expectancy of at least ten years.
Women belonging to high risk groups for the appearance of breast cancer, it is recommended to undergo digital tomosynthesis from the age of 30 and breast MRI from the age of 25. These are women who have a greater than 20-25% chance of developing breast cancer during their lifetime. This possibility arises from special risk assessment tools, which take into account the woman’s family history and breast density.
These recommendations are also for women who have undergone genetic control, who highlighted a mutation in specific genes or women who have first-degree relatives with a mutation in these genes. The high-risk group also includes women who underwent radiation therapy to the chest at a young age (10-30 years).
Women with extremely dense breasts it is recommended that they undergo a breast MRI every two years, even if they do not have a family history of breast cancer. MRI does not replace mammography, but complements it. This is because, although an MRI is more likely to detect a cancer in a dense breast than a mammogram, it may not detect a cancer that a mammogram would detect.
We must not postpone personalized breast imaging, as it is determined and carried out with the collaboration of the specialized breast radiologist and the clinician, at the Breast Centers, because only this allows the early diagnosis of a breast tumor, which leads us today to high cure rates for women with breast cancer.
October is the Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a reminder that prevention and early screening save lives. HYGEIA and MITERA, with their new campaign, try to remind every woman how important breast screening is in preventing the disease, asking the simple question: “Have you been searched?”. So let’s make prevention our ally!