Diagnostic Methods

Dive into various screening and diagnostic techniques.

Screening Methods

Mammography

Uses low amount of X ray for detection of abormalities.

Key Features:

  • Usually recommended for the age group of 40s by ACR and NCCN.
  • For age group of 50s-70s , biennially is recommended by AAFP.
  • Digital mammography is used for better accuracy.
  • Digital Breast Tomosynsthesis is preffered as it reduces false positive results.

MRI and Nuclear Imaging

Magnetic field and constrast dyes to detect the breast tissues.

Key Features:

  • Used for women with high risk of breast cancer.
  • Mainly used for early detection and dense breasts.
  • Has higher senstivity than mammograms.
  • A radioactive tracer can be injected in the blood for tumor detection purposes.

Other Techniques

Options:

  • Ultrasound:used for cysts and solid masses.
  • Not used a solely screening method.
  • Wisdom trial : Tries to reduce overdiagnosis and over treatment.
  • Important to test digital breast tomosynsthesis.

Advanced Diagnostic Methods

Supplemental Ultrasound

It is an imaging test ,often used for women with dense tissues.

Features:

  • Used for high-risk patients.
  • Dense breast tissue.
  • Safe during pregnancy.
  • Used when if mammograms may miss out on abnormalities.

Lymph Node and Prognostic Assesments

Axillary Lymph node dissection: Removal of lymph node through surgical methods. Gives information about how much the cancer has spread and helps to detect the surival rate.

Skip Metastases::

  • Occurs in around 15% of cases.
  • Can get complicated sometimes during the treatment process.

Lymph Node and Prognostic Assesments

Sentinel Lymph Node Dissection : A process where the lymph nodes draining the breast are removed and then later checked to what extent the cancer has spread.

Features:

  • Shows high accuracy levels.
  • Senstivity level can go upto 89%.
  • Specificity level can go upto 100%.
  • Mainly used as a surgical process.

Biopsy Procedures

Fine Needle Aspiration

The cancerous lumps are removed with the help of a tiny needle.

Mainly used to drain the cystic lumps. Can sometimes give a false negative results.

Core Needle Biopsy

A hollow needle is used to remove small cyclinder like structures of the breast tissues . This is a more safe method as compared to fine needle aspiration.

Ultrasound imaging is used to guide the needle to the lesions. It has recovery time is 1-2 days.

Surgical Biopsy

An entire lump is removed in this method. There are two types : a)Excisional Biopsy: An entire lump is removed through the process of surgery b)Incisonal Biopsy: Only the infected portion or lump is removed .Not a frequent method used , it is only used when complete removal is not possible.

The usual time for the surgery can be 1-2 hours. It has recovery time is 1-2 weeks.