Does Breast Ultrasound Improve Breast Cancer Detection?
Current breast cancer screening guidelines call for annual screening mammograms to be performed, starting at about age 40 for women of average risk, and at least 10 years earlier for women with one or more increased risk factors for breast cancer. Over the past 2 or 3 years, MRI scans have also become increasingly important in screening high-risk women, although cost factors and the erroneously positive (“false positive”) results often associated with MRI scans of the breast continue to stimulate debate about the role of MRI in breast cancer screening and detection. Ultrasound, on the other had, has been in use for decades. Ultrasound is non-invasive, does not expose the patient to ionizing radiation (like mammograms) or to high-level magnetic fields (like MRI), and is relatively inexpensive. Ultrasound examinations utilize special probes that transmit harmless sound waves through the body’s tissues. These sound waves are reflected back to the probe proportionally according to the dens
