Mammography is a crucial tool in detecting breast cancer early. It uses low-dose X-rays to capture images of the breast, allowing healthcare professionals to detect abnormalities and tumors. National health organizations recommend women have a mammogram every year starting at age 40. While not foolproof, mammography is a reliable way to assess breast health.
One of the most terrifying words in the English language is cancer. Every year a large number of people die of cancer. More and more scientists are finding ever better ways to treat and eliminate cancer. However, no comprehensive cure has been found, and the risk of cancer remains high and widespread in large numbers of people.
One of the leading causes of death among women is breast cancer. The usual methods of treating and eliminating this type of cancer include radiation and chemotherapy. Radical methods of dealing with this cancer include lumpectomy, the removal of a tumor, and mastectomy, the total removal of the breast.
Healthcare professionals urge their patients to exercise vigilance to avoid or lessen the effects of cancer altogether. Inspection of the body using X-rays and other diagnostic tools is the primary way for doctors and nurses to discover tumors before it’s too late. Such an inspection of a woman’s breast, looking for cases of breast cancer, is called a mammogram. Healthcare professionals will administer a mammogram to a woman who complains of pain or abnormality in her breasts, or even to women who have none of these symptoms. The key is prevention and mammography is an important weapon in the fight against cancer.
Using a low-dose X-ray, the mammography machine takes a snapshot of the inside of a woman’s breast. The machine itself is a rectangular box that does nothing more than produce the mammography. The machine, however, is only a part of the device; the other part is a unit that holds and compresses the breast so that images can be captured from different angles. Doctors and nurses examine these snapshots, looking for signs of abnormalities such as nodules, which could be tumors. The results of a mammogram are usually available rather quickly, easing the anxiety of those undergoing the procedure.
National health organizations in various countries urge women to have a mammogram every year starting at the age of 40. This mammogram can detect signs of breast cancer a full two years before a health care professional can find those signs using just a hands-on inspection. If a tumor is discovered early enough in its life, it can be tackled and eradicated much more easily than if it is allowed to grow unimpeded.
Mammography is a very useful tool for healthcare professionals in the fight against breast cancer. However, mammography isn’t entirely foolproof. In rare cases, a mammogram won’t find evidence of breast cancer even when it exists; in even rarer cases, the mammogram will report evidence of breast cancer when there is none. In the vast majority of cases, however, the results of a mammogram can be relied upon to project an accurate picture of a woman’s breast health.
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