Mammographic technology used for breast cancer screening

Abstract

Breast cancer, the most common cancer in women (1 in 8 women develops breast cancer), has generated considerable interest in the literature with the result that Breast Cancer Screening Programmes have become the norm in developed countries. The aim of these screening programs is to achieve early detection of breast cancer in women who have not yet developed any symptoms. Such early detection would allow early treatment, which is necessary to achieve a good treatment outcome. It has been shown that treatment of early cancer results in cure in 98% of cases, while late cancer detection results in a poor outcome. Early breast cancer detection depends on the accuracy of the equipment used and on training and experience of the specialists involved. Equipment accuracy and consequently image quality play a very important role as specialist training and experience do not compensate for poor image quality. There is considerable scientific evidence confirming the advantages of digital mammography over conventional film-screen mammography.