Finding Cancer That Mammograms Can Miss

(CBS)  As a professional sculptor, 59-year-old Eileen Fields understands the importance of good tools.

Fortunately, her doctor had an extra tool to screen her for breast cancer - an ultrasound. A mammogram had missed her cancer, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.

Does it cross her mind what would have happened if she didn't have the ultrasound?

"Oh absolutely," she said. "It's terrifying to think if she hadn't had the ultrasound. Because it could have been three or four years before they found anything."

Fields has dense breast tissue, which can mask small tumors.

"It's like looking for a snowball in a field of rice," said Dr. Freya Schnabel. "It's just very difficult to be able to pick out the boundaries of that mass."

In today's study of about 2,809 women with dense tissue and other risk factors, mammography alone found only half of the cancers. Mammography with ultrasound spotted 78 percent.

Right now the American Cancer society recommends an MRI in addition to a mammogram for women who are at high risk for breast cancer. But this study - the most definitive so far - may encourage more doctors to consider ultrasound, which is easier and less expensive.

"And does not involve any radiation or breast compression," Schnabel said.

Doctors caught and treated Fields' cancer early. She feels her life is back in her own hands.

"This could have gone on for years before anybody found it, and it could have been a whole different story," she said. "And I don't like that story. This is a better story."

And it's an important story, because about half of women under the age of 50 are found to have dense breast tissue when they get their mammograms.

[4marlene]

I read about a study that had discovered that ill fitting bras (too tight), constrict and block flow of lymphatic fluids around the breast and can lead to breast cancer. The study done in remote country where bras are not worn at all, there was no breast cancer. This led to further study and at that point appeared to be something worth really looking into further. I am personally testing this theory, just in case they are right. :)

[Netterz]

Cancer TREATMENTS are HUGE $$$$$ CASH COWS. As long as they can continue to rake in BILLIONS every day, in every country on earth, there will be no cure. The same goes with any other disease or medical condition. When was the last time you heard of cure for anything?

[Netterz]

Triple Negative BC is fast, very aggresive and deadly, to YOUNG WOMEN. It can kill you in a few short months. You dont have to have BC in your family history. Women have been given a false sense of security that BC wont happen to me, I am too young, it doesnt happen till after menopause, etc. WWRONGGGGGGGGGG!!!! More and more women are being diagnosed each year. This subtype, is NOT hormonally receptive, making it more likely to happen in young women, at a recent symposium, a woman was diagnoed at 16 with it. If you feel ANY LUMP, ANY DIFFERENCE, INSIST ON BEING TESTED, AND CONTINUE TO GET TESTED EVERY FEW MONTHS. IF IT GROWS, AND YOUR DOC SAYS ITS NOTHING, GET ANOTHER DOC. TNBC spreads rapidly, most commonly to and then thru the lymph system, then to the brain, bone, and lungs. PLEASE, CHECK YOUR BREASTS REGULARLY, know them as well as you know your own face. If your doc refuses to listen, go to a breast specialist. When it comes to your life, you are te only one who is going to fight for it, INSIST on more than a mammogram if you feel any change at all. Dying at 30, because no one will listen, because you dont meet the norm, is not acceptable. Know yourself, before its too late, like it already is for me.

[Netterz]

Mammograms are and will continue to be the ''standard'' because it is the cheapest way. Having always had dense fibrous breasts, mammograms were started at 30, instead of the norm of 40. It missed a cancerous tunor that was the size of an extra large olive, that I had found myself. Even then, I had to fight the insurance co tooth and nail for the MRI, to be sure it was the only tumor. At 40, I was diagnosed with a rare form of BC, referred to as "Triple Negative Breast Cancer". If you call 5-11% rare, it happens to young women, a early as 16. The Cancer professionals rarely discuss this type, because they havent researched it enough, surgery & radiation is about the only option, as main stream chemos have no effect on it. Vigilance, and persistance, arguements and fighting for my own life wth the insurance co''s is my daily routine now, and it shouldnt be that way.

[baileyccc]

The deadly mammogram, so profitable with lousy results should have been taken off the market years ago. The damage it has done to women with heavy doses of radiation is immeasurable. No mention of prevention nutrients, only expensive testing. The exploitation of women is in full swing by the Medical Community.