Diagnosis

Every patient seen in the Comprehensive Breast Program receives a complete evaluation prior to diagnosis and treatment. An examination and diagnostic tests can help identify benign breast conditions and breast changes that might indicate breast cancer.

Learn more about breast cancer from the National Cancer Institute.

Types of screening and diagnostic tests:

• A screening mammogram is an X-ray examination of the breasts. This is the recommended and most common way to detect early breast cancer. Any woman 40 years or older should have a screening mammogram every year. Finding and treating breast cancer early is important.
• A diagnostic mammogram is used after a lump or other abnormality in the breast is detected.
• A breast ultrasound uses sound waves to display a picture of breast tissues. Having an ultrasound is non-invasive. It is often used in addition to a mammogram to further evaluate abnormalities in the breast.
• A biopsy is a procedure in which a doctor removes a small sample of tissue from the breast for further evaluation by a pathologist. There are many ways a breast biopsy can be performed. Biopsies can be minimally invasive or surgical. Your doctor will determine which biopsy is appropriate for you after an examination and review of your mammogram and/or ultrasound.
• Breast MRI is used to provide enhanced imaging of the breasts in a number of situations. In patients with a recent diagnosis of invasive breast cancer it is used to screen both breasts for additional areas of cancer. In approximately 5% of cases it finds cancer not seen by mammography in the other breast. About 10-25% of the time another cancer is found elsewhere in the breast with the known cancer. A breast MRI is used in addition to mammography in women deemed to be at high risk of developing breast cancer because of their family histories. In these cases, it finds about twice as many cancers as mammography. MRI can be used to diagnose breast implant rupture, and certain other specialized cases may be referred to breast MRI on occasion. The test takes about 20-30 minutes. Needle biopsies of the breast are occasionally performed in the MRI scanner.

Learn more about Screening & Diagnostic Mammograms, Cancer Genetics, and Improving Methods for Breast Cancer Detection and Diagnosis from the National Cancer Institute.