An additional examination of cancer could help raise early cases in thick breasts

If you have a thick breast tissue, you could benefit from an additional circle Cancer Screening, according to a large trial that found that tumors were caught that were missed in standard mammograms.

Great Britain health The services offer mammogram, the form of X -ray scanning, between the ages of 50 and 71 to review breast cancer. They seek white growth that indicates cancer. But about half of the women in this age group has thick breastswhich means they have a high proportion of fibrous and glandular tissue, which also appears as white on scanning. This tumor can make it difficult to see in these individuals.

“The problem with thick breasts is to see cancer too late, then they are too big and that leads to an unfavorable forecast,” he says Thomas Helbich at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, which was not involved in the trial.

To see if additional examination can be resolved, Sarah Vinnicobe At the University of Dundee, the UK and her colleagues, more than 6,000 women aged 50-70 from all over the UK, who had thick breasts and whose mammograms returned to the latest project. Researchers randomly divided the participants into three groups who received additional scoops in the form or MRI, ultrasound or advanced form of scanning of X -ray of X -rays called a mammography enhanced contrast.

Additional screening collectively discovered 85 small tumors, with mammography enhanced MRI and contrasting three times more tumors than an ultrasound. Twelve of these tumors were contained in milk channels, so it was unlikely to spread outside the breast. But the remaining 73 tumors were invasive, when the cancer cells grew through the mucous membranes of the canal into the surrounding tissue of the breast and then have a greater potential for expansion.

“It is very important to find these cancers; they usually grow and if you discover them three, four years later, they will be bigger,” says Helbich. “As some will be aggressive, I’m pretty sure that an additional examination would save lives.”

But we don’t know if that would definitely be the case. For example, 2021 trial The ovarian cancer screening has led to a reduced incidence of the condition, but has not been translated into the rescue of life. It is also possible that some of the tumors detected are non -adancarous or unlikely to be wider. If this is the case, an additional examination could lead to an unnecessary concern or treatment.

The team plans to continue monitoring the participants to help determine if additional review helps save lives and if it could justify the costs of introducing, Vinnicombe says.