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Some new screening methods are being developed to identify women at high risk of breast cancer or to detect breast cancer in early stages:
- Digital mammography lets doctors view mammograms on a computer screen. These are said to give fewer false positives than traditional film mammograms. However, there are conflicting opinions on this.
- Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is useful for younger women or women with dense breast tissue.
- Ductal lavage is a way of gently washing cells out of the milk duct through the nipple and inspecting them for precancerous changes.
- Genetic tests now can identify women who may be at especially high risk because she has certain genes.
Your Risk
Check your risk at this site from the National Cancer Institute.
Learn about your risk as the daughter of someone who had breast cancer.
Download a Risk Assessment Tool from Oncolink.
Read about risk in an article from Oncolink.
Mammography
Read a news story about a congressional study of digital mammography.
Read about digital mammography.
Easy to read description of mammography from "4-Woman.gov."
What is a mammogram? Information from Radiologyinfo.org.
Ultrasound
Imaginis.com offers a description.
Ductal Lavage
Read an interview with Dr. Susan Love about the procedure.
From BreastCancer.org, an article about why ductal lavage may result in earlier detection.
Be a smart surfer: These sites are from a mix of private, commercial and government organizations. As always with Web-based research, be aware of sites' sponsors and advertising and try to determine who is resonsible for content in order to assess credibility of information presented. BC:FYI lists links to sites the author thinks offer useful information, simply presented.