Mammos Aren't So Good at Finding Aggressive Cancers

Some women seem to think that as long as they get regular mammograms, they'll be safe from breast cancer. That's not necessarily so. Some cancers grow so quickly that they develop between scheduled mammograms. These can be especially dangerous.

Increased use of mammography has resulted in more tumors being found, but many of these are slow-growing, relatively benign cancers. Says Dr. Esserman, "We are not going to screen ourselves into a cure." To do better, she says, doctors need to find smarter ways of screening and to develop more effective treatments for aggressive cancers.

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