By Sheila Dwyer, Body1 Staff
Women over age 40 are encouraged to receive an annual mammogram to detect breast cancer early. They can also discover breast lumps on their own during self-exams. Approximately 700,000 women per year in the United States receive abnormal mammogram readings after an unusual self-exam or routine doctor’s visit and must undergo breast biopsy. Although these women and their doctors act quickly to confirm or rule out breast cancer, the trauma of surgical tissue removal to achieve diagnosis can leave a woman with lasting physical scars.
For years, an open surgical biopsy (OSB) was performed on a woman with a suspicious, nonpalpable lump in her breast. It was accepted as the gold standard for obtaining breast tissue for evaluation and diagnosis. Although OSB accurately diagnosed many women with malignancies, it also left scars that could potentially obscure the results of future mammograms.
Recently, the medical community accepted a new biopsy technique. Image-guided biopsy has quickly gained in popularity. It has several advantages over OSB: it is more cost effective, easier to schedule, and, most importantly, it is equally sensitive to the presence of cancer. In addition, the image guidance helps the doctor more accurately target the area of tissue that appeared abnormal on the initial mammogram. Some medical experts believe that the advantages of image-guided breast biopsy help to lower the patient’s anxiety level prior to the biopsy.
Ultrasound and stereotactic guidance are two techniques used in image-guided breast biopsy. Stereotactic biopsy, which involves pictures of the breast taken from many angles, is performed at a slightly higher rate than ultrasound biopsy. When stereotactic guidance is used, the patient lies stomach-down on a table with her breast exposed through an opening. The imaging is performed from below the raised table. When ultrasound guidance is used, the patient lies on her back and the image is obtained from above.
During the actual biopsy, the patient is under local anesthesia. The doctor places a needle into the suspicious breast tissue. Digital images generated by either guidance method help the doctor determine where to place the needle to get an accurate sample. The doctor removes about three to five samples of the tissue through the needle, which takes approximately 15 minutes. Afterward, a small adhesive bandage and sterile strips are applied to the skin.
Certain drawbacks exist for image-guided breast biopsy. Needle biopsy may not provide a good sample for abnormal tissue close to the ribs, posterior in the breast, and extremely close to the nipple. In cases where the lump is in one of these locations, OSB may still need to be performed.
Eighty percent of women who undergo breast biopsy every year are cancer-free. But for the other women whose biopsies indicate malignancy, they face a difficult road. The medical community seems eager to make the process of lump discovery, diagnosis, and treatment as tolerable as possible. Image-guided biopsy is an early choice that women and their doctors can make to assert control over breast cancer from an early stage.
To read more about Breast Cancer Awareness Month, go to:
Companies and Celebrities Couple to Raise Awareness of Breast Cancer
References:
www.cnn.com
www.medscape.com
medicare.hcfa.gov
