Jenifer Baumgardner and Emily Boeckman don’t want to give breast cancer a fair fight.
In fact, they actively try to gang up on it. They’ll double- or even triple-team the disease every chance they get at the Sebastian River Medical Center.
In their eyes, no cancer deserves a fighting chance.
The National Cancer Institute says some 232,340 cases of breast cancer in women and 2,240 breast cancers in men are reported in this country every year and the National Institutes of Health reports the disease will claim almost 40,000 lives in the United States this year alone.
Breast cancers occur when breast cells begin growing abnormally. No one really knows exactly what triggers this but those cells start to divide far more rapidly than healthy cells and continue growing until they form a lump or mass. They can then “metastasize” and spread uncontrollably through the entire breast and then move on to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body.
Early detection is the undisputed best bet for beating breast cancer so Baumgardner and Boeckman are prepared to throw everything the hospital’s newly expanded thoracic oncology imaging department has to offer right at the disease in order to catch – and stop it – in its tracks.
That’s where the double- and triple-teaming comes in.
First there are traditional mammograms. If any anomalies show up, a breast ultrasound might then be ordered. Should any questions still remain after that, explains Boeckman, “before we jump to a biopsy, the radiologists will recommend a breast MRI.”
A mammogram is simply an x-ray of the breast and is the primary tool used in detecting the disease. The National Cancer Center explains that “x-ray images make it possible to detect tumors that cannot be felt,” and adds they can “also find micro-calcifications or tiny deposits of calcium that sometimes indicate the presence of breast cancer.”
A breast ultrasound, meanwhile, uses sound waves to make a picture of the tissues inside the breast. It can show all areas of the breast including the area closest to the chest wall which, according to WebMD, is often difficult to examine closely with only a mammogram.
A breast MRI is the newest of these diagnostic tests and uses a powerful magnetic field, radio pulses and a computer algorithm to produce detailed images of the interior of the breast. According to the American Cancer Society, “a contrast liquid called gadolinium is [often] injected into a vein before or during the scan to show details better.”
The Johns Hopkins Medical Library in Baltimore, MD, claims, “MRIs can locate some small breast lesions sometimes missed by mammography. It can also help detect breast cancer in women with breast implants and in younger women who tend to have dense breast tissue.”
Early versions of MRI software, however, had some flaws or what Hopkins calls, “potential limitations,” including frequent “false positive test results” which sometimes could lead to unnecessary biopsies and possibly even surgeries.
Fortunately, the Baltimore-based medical powerhouse now reports, “Recent research has demonstrated that using commercially available software programs to enhance breast MRI scans can reduce the number of false positive results with malignant tumors. Thus, the need for biopsies may decrease with computer-aided enhancement.”
That’s where SRMC’s new “Magnetom Aera” MRI machine from Siemens really shines. Equipped with the latest software, the images it can deliver makes diagnosing early-stage cancers much easier and more accurate than ever.
MRI scans, however, do require a patient patient.
According to Baumgardner, the MRI procedure, “Can take from 25 to 30 minutes,” and the American Cancer Society points out that, “for a breast MRI, you have to lie inside a narrow tube, face-down on a platform specially designed for the procedure. The platform has openings for each breast that allow them to be imaged without compression. The platform contains the sensors needed to capture the MRI image. It is important to remain very still throughout the exam.”
While RadiologyInfo.org says breast MRIs are most frequently recommended for those with a strong family history of breast cancer including a mother, sister, aunt, uncle or cousin who developed the disease before the age of 50, as with any cancer, there are no hard-and-fast rules.
Your primary care physician along with Baumgardner, Boeckman and the rest of the SRMC imaging staff will collect the information they need from you to assess your situation and discuss their recommendations with you before proceeding.
The key to beating breast – or any other cancer – is early detection and having three separate screening techniques available only increases your odds of success.
Cancer doesn’t fight fair. You shouldn’t either. Gang up on it and win.
The Sebastian River Medical Center is at 13695 U.S. Highway 1. The phone number is 772-581-2060.