Getting a diagnosis of breast cancer could be traumatic, but since these days the survival rate is as high as 98% percent, there is no reason to be afraid anymore.
Still you may be interested in the history of breast cancer treatment. It is good to know that in the past the condition could be diagnosed only when the tumor was large enough to feel or see.
Information about the breast cancer treatment history
The good news is that the specialists can make a diagnosis even before the first symptoms of the condition appear.
Some important advancement was made in this case, including the use of mammography, radiation, chemotherapy, genetic testing, drugs limiting estrogen, surgical improvements and targeted molecular therapy.
Advances of breast cancer diagnosis
Starting with the 1950s the advancements of the medical field are credited for increasing the 5-year survival rate of breast cancer patients from 80% to 98%.
Mammography is known to be the most important means of detection of breast cancer.
Standard mammography
This treatment was introduced in 1967 and gained popularity very fast. This mainly happened because this new kind of X-ray was introduced especially for the breasts.
Back then the main point of the test was to analyze the problem that was already identified. Screening mammograms were introduced in the 1980s.
Digital mammography
This breast treatment was introduced at the beginning of the 1990s. The advantage is that it offers more detailed images and options for storing for future comparison. However at this point it isn’t available in many places. This piece of equipment can be used in case of women younger than 50 and those with dense breast tissue.
The truth about this is that if the breast tissue has a bit of fat this can obscure the possible abnormalities of the breast in case of standard mammograms. In some cases this equipment isn’t more useful than the other ones, but it is more expensive.
Three-dimensional mammography
This is one of the latest advancements in the history of breast cancer treatment. It was introduced in 2010. It is hoped to offer clearer images that would help the specialists find the cancers at earlier stages and to reduce the number of mammograms needed by 50%.
Ultrasound
This breast cancer treatment appeared during the 1970s. Back then the doctors used it in case of cysts that they already knew about filled with liquid or solid matter. In that period the specialists used other kinds of methods to find the tumors, they just checked the diagnosis by ultrasound.
MRI
This is an important part of the history of the breast cancer therapy. Starting with 2007 the doctors perform routine MRIs of women who are at high risks of being affected by the condition.
As you can see the history of breast cancer treatment is really long and has had many different kinds of advancements.
It’s always useful to learn about your family’s history about genetic diseases such as cancer because this will help you know if you’re prone to the same sickness. It will also help if you have you’ll invest in business cards printing so that you can easily contact or communicate with organizations that support cancer patients.
