Benefits and Drawbacks
Regular screening mammograms save lives, but like any screening test along with the benefits, there can be drawbacks.
Benefits:
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A screening mammogram is a simple, safe and effective test to detect most types of breast cancer early.
- Early detection offers more treatment options and a better ability to recover. This reduces your chance of dying from breast cancer.
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Having regular screening mammograms allows us to detect changes in your breasts because there are previous mammograms available for comparison.
Drawbacks:
- You may need further tests only to find that you don't have breast cancer. Further tests can be a diagnostic mammogram, ultrasound and/or biopsy.
- You will be exposed to a low dose of radiation. However, the chance of a single mammogram causing a breast cancer is less than one in a million.
- Not all breast cancers can be detected by mammograms.