Breast Cancer: Early Diagnosis Is Everything

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BREAST CANCER is the leading cancer in women worldwide. In 2012, 1.7 million people were newly diagnosed with breast cancer. The earlier a breast cancer can be detected and treated, the higher the chance of the patient surviving and receiving benefit from medical treatments. The World Health Organization states that in countries with advanced medical care, the five-year survival rate of early stage breast cancers is 80 – 90 percent, however, for cancer diagnosed at advanced stages, the survival rate drops to 24 percent. Because of this, on time breast screening is the most common and effective way to diagnose breast cancer in many countries. A lot of education and information is required for women to reduce the fear of breast screening for their own benefit.

Breast screening is a series of procedures that run a mammography scan of the patient. The screening procedure takes a few seconds and is meant to detect the existence of breast cancer. If a cancer is found, more thorough testing is required to determine the characteristics of such cancer. However, detecting some breast cancers early enough is a challenge that we have to overcome. Sometimes a screening cannot show all the needed information so other modalities need to be used to go into the depth of the breast tissue.