Women's Health
Is ultrasound an alternative for breast cancer screening?
Ask the doctor
In your discussions of breast cancer screening, you never mention ultrasound. Is it an alternative to mammography?Preliminary data suggest that whole-breast ultrasound screening, when used in addition to mammograms, detects some additional early-stage breast cancers that are not seen on mammograms in women with dense breast tissue—but at a cost. The addition of ultrasound to mammography screening carries a substantial risk for false-positive results (meaning the test shows a possible problem, yet no breast cancer is present). False-positive results can result in anxiety, breast biopsies with benign results, and a cycle of additional follow-up mammograms and ultrasounds. Moreover, the addition of ultrasound to mammographic screening has not yet been shown to reduce death rates from breast cancer.
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