Another Reason to Remember Your Annual Mammogram

There’s more than one way to say this, because there’s more than one way it’s true: early detection saves lives. What causes us to say that today?

A new study helps emphasize this point. A recent study in Chicago evaluated relationship between breast cancer diagnosis, frequency of mammograms and lymph node involvement in cancer.  The study showed that women who had mammograms every 1-1.5 years had a lower risk of lymph node involvement in their cancers. There cancers were more commonly localized to the breast tissue.  What does this mean? It means their cancers were caught before it spread to the lymphatic system. Just to walk that back for a moment– the more localized a cancer is, the better the chances of successful treatment.

We recommend annual screening mammograms (even when there’s no outward indicators of cancer) – as does the Society for Breast Imaging and the American College of Radiology. Our wish is an end to breast cancer, and our hope is that as long as it still exists, we are in the best possible position to save lives. So: annual exams, lower stage cancer (if any) and longer lives for all please.

Image credit: Reminder by Deann Barrera (via Flickr) Copyright Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Originally published 1/8/14 on mammographykc.com.