Are Mammograms Radiation? Are they killing us?

I question the 50% accuracy rate in dense breasts.  

Hi Fearless,

Do you think accuracy is more or less than 50 percent with dense breasts/. That's what i got from Johns Hopkins research and my oncologist seemed to think that was about right. I saw a woman at some other univeristy  cancer center on a video. She reported mammo is about 40 percent. Both burns and  chills me when I meet all the ladies during chemo whose mammograms missed it. Some, sadly already had  advanced disease.

"I keep hearing digital isn't astoundingly better with dense"  

That seems to be a common opinion but the research seems to suggest otherwise.  

I only included links to the one study in my previous post because it's the one that's discussed most often, but I read the results of a number of other studies done in countries all around the world that also showed that digital mammos are better than film mammos for women with dense breasts. 

MRIs - or a combination of MRIs and mammos - clearly are preferable for women who have extremely dense breasts.  But not everyone reading this will be able to get an MRI and I don't think it's right to scare these women into thinking that mammos are useless for them.  It's particularly not right to scare them using inaccurate data and personal anecdotes. Sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone but we have to be conscious of the effect on others of what we write here.

First of all, the issue of breast density does not affect all women, and the category of density that is of the greatest concern is those who have "extremely dense" breasts (as I do).  

Digital mammos appear to be significantly more effective in diagnosing breast cancer, and particularly, early stage BC, in women who have extremely dense breasts.  Digital mammos appear to be 70% accurate.  

Getting your mammo read by someone who reads thousands of mammos every year and who's been doing it for years is another way to try increase the effectiveness of your mammo.

So, for women who have extremely dense breasts, if you are unable to get an MRI, try to find a facility that uses digital mammography and that is well established and busy (a major breast center, for example).  

Hi Ruth,

Again, you've completely misunderstood the information you're presenting.  You said, "[elastography is] the latest clinically approved diagnostic tool for breast malignancies."

NO- That's not what it says at all!  Please reread the BCO article you posted. 

BCO Elastography 

if I have misunderstood it, then tell me what your understanding is--