Mammograms are offered at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the Texas Medical Center. They are also offered on M.D. Anderson's self-contained 38-foot van containing a LoRad MIV mammography unit. The van travels to various workplace sites where employees and clients can jump on board the van for a mobile mammogram. Hartford Hospital's Take the Time mammogram van travels to clinics, churches, senior centers, and other Connecticut locations where women can easily access life-saving screenings. The University Breast Health Center in Augusta, Georgia is home to a mobile mammography program that reaches underserved women unable to report for on-site visits. Lexington Medical Center in South Carolina offers mobile mammograms. Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization affiliates offer their own traveling screening services. And a mobile mammogram service was offered on Kent State University's campus during this October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Mammograms on the go are no different than mammograms at fixed locations. They are high quality, safe, confidential -- and typically speedier than the traditional screening procedure. Often, a woman knows before she departs that her image is technically accurate. She can ask questions and receive information, and she can expect a prompt call from the radiologist or her physician who will discuss results. Sometimes, mobile mammograms take as little as 20 minutes to complete.
Mammograms are recommended for women age 40 and older and for women with a personal or family history of breast cancer. As with all medical services, there are barriers -- such as awareness, cost, transportation, convenience -- that prevent access for some people. Mobile mammograms help drive away barriers. They allow more women more access to the best tool for identifying breast cancer in its earliest form.
Roll on, mammogram vans!
1. Taking a mammogram has become a regular fixture in the lives of millions of women. It seems like a rather conservative and sensible thing to do. But is this such a benign process?
The Evidence Is Mixed
The evidence in favour of mammograms is largely unclear and inconclusive. And, in fact, some of the evidence against having them is startling.
The basic proposal of the 'pro' camp is that regular mammograms in the over-50 age group reduce the chances of women over 50 dying from breast cancer by 30%; and they reduce the chances of future mastectomies. These are the interpretations of the findings of a Swedish study reported in the Lancet in 1993.
These findings have been questioned by many authorities in alternative medicine. And now, a recent study, reported in the Lancet, the British Medical Journal and the New York Times, has created more 'official' concerns.
Two of the members of the study group have stood apart from their colleagues and, most unusually, have voiced their concerns over the previous studies. One of the members, Dr. Peter Gotzsche, director of the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, says: "The quality of the trials was very surprising because it is pretty low".
In particular, it is said that these studies give no clear evidence that early identification of breast lumps leads to a reduced risk of death, or to a reduced chance of radical surgery, as claimed.
On re-examining the data, it even appears as if mastectomy is 20% more likely to happen among women who have had mammograms. (It was supposed to be less likely to happen if you had regular mammograms.)
The authorities in the USA and the UK say they have no plans to change their recommendations to women over 50. But then that is not surprising. They will wait for further studies before considering a U-turn on the mammogram policy of the last twenty years.
So - you'd better look at some of the data and make your own
mind up!
Posted at 9:02PM on Nov 20th 2006 by Dr Zeenatullah