Ultrasounds Help To Detect Breast Cancer And Also Other Harmless Spots

According to new study, screening women with both ultrasounds and mammograms allows doctors to find more breast cancers than if they rely on mammograms alone.

However, the combination also leads to many more unnecessary biopsies, and experts don’t recommend it to most patients.

Researchers involved in a study of more than 2,600 women in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association focused on women at high risk, such as those who have had previous breast tumors.

In such women, mammograms found cancer in eight out of 1,000 women screened. Adding an ultrasound let doctors find cancer in 12 out of 1,000.

But ultra-sensitive tests have drawbacks. In addition to finding real breast tumors, ultrasounds also pick up many more suspicious spots that are later found to be benign, says radiologist Wendie Berg, the new study’s main author.

In fact, more than 90% of suspicious ultrasound findings in the study proved harmless.

You can find more information at: USA Today