Question: Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of ads online promoting breast ultrasound as an alternative to mammography. Is it true that I can have a breast ultrasound instead of a mammogram and still get accurate results?

The general answer to this question is no.

According to Dr. Jason McKellop, Medical Director at Breastlink Tarzana, as well as a board-certified radiologist with fellowship training in breast imaging, breast ultrasound, although a powerful imaging utility, is a supplement and not a substitute for mammography screening.

“There are findings seen on mammogram that are either less visible or not seen on ultrasound,” Dr. McKellop explains. “Microcalcifications, generally speaking, are virtually invisible on sonography.”

 When is breast ultrasound useful?

Breast […]

When it comes to breast cancer, early detection is the key to survival. It has long been held by experts, including the physicians at RadNet and Breastlink, that the sooner a doctor finds a woman’s cancer, the more likely she is to survive. The connection between mammogram screenings and breast cancer survival rates has been evaluated in multiple studies, and most have demonstrated that early mammogram screenings save lives.

There is a new study that has recently come out from a research team based in Sweden and London. They analyzed data from more than half a million women who were eligible for screening mammography in nine Swedish counties.

The study found […]

Health organizations drop recommendations for Breast Self-Exams and instead promote Breast Self Awareness.

For over 70 years health care professionals have been advising women to perform regular breast self-exams as a critical screening tool for breast cancer detection. Recently however, there have been conflicting recommendations, leaving patients confused about the whole matter.

According to Circuelle Foundation, a Florida-based breast health education group, breast self-exams were first introduced to women in the U.S. in 1930. The American Cancer Society (ACS) launched an awareness campaign in 1947, “Look for a Lump or Thickening in the Breast.”

In 1960 the ACS and National Cancer Institute were behind a major push to increase early detection, releasing a […]

Last month, Allergen issued a world-wide recall on their textured breast implants. This followed a discovery by the FDA of a direct link between the implants and a rare type of cancer. According to FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy, Allergen’s textured implants “appeared to be directly linked to significant patient harm, including death.”

While the link between the textured implants and cancer was first identified in 2011, it was only recently that there has been a significant increase in known cases of Implant Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), according to the FDA. This is not a type of breast cancer, but a cancer that affects the immune system. Slow […]