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Corel Medical Series: Cancer
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00082_Field_SRC.c06.C.9.txt
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1997-01-28
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• The smallest lump usually felt is about 1 cm (1/3 in.) and contains 1 billion cancer cells . Routine
mammography can detect smaller cancers, some even less than 0.5 cm (1/5 in.). It is estimated that five-year
survival is 20 to 25 percent better for cancers detected by mammography than for those diagnosed after
a lump has appeared.
Women screened regularly with modern mammography (after 1985) have only a 10 to 30 percent rate of axillary
node metastasis , compared to 50 percent for women who do not undergo screening .
• Some concern has been expressed about the risk of frequent x-ray imaging, but the potential benefits far
outweigh the risks. The x-ray dose of a mammogram today is about one-tenth that of 25 years ago and is about
the same as the cosmic radiation received during a transcontinental airplane flight. The risk of mammography
causing a tumor has been compared to the risk of getting lung cancer from smoking one cigarette.
Although mammography is the most effective screening method, about 10 to 15 percent of cancers will be
missed by mammography yet found by physical examination, including BSE. Complete breast cancer screening
involves all three methods.