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Medical Author:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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Medical Editor:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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The benefit of mammography screening outweighs the risk of any harm from the radiation. Currently it is estimated that ionizing radiation needed for a mammogram is lower than the dose of cosmic radiation to which a passenger on an intercontinental flight may be exposed, or a skier on a mountain over 3,000 meters. Use of a low dose radiation gives doctors the ability to repeat the mammogram once a year, beginning after age 40 to 50 years. A mammogram could be prescribed for women with personal or family history of cancer of the breast or other organs, regardless of her age.

Those patients who have not entered menopause need to make sure they are not pregnant before obtaining a mammogram, due to the small potential radiation exposure.

For women who have a breast implant, there is an extremely small chance that the pressure placed on the implant during the mammography will cause a rupture or break. If this occurs, a surgical operation may be needed to have the implant removed.

In a very small number of cases, the accuracy of the mammogram is lower than usual.

• For women with breast implants, the ability of mammography to detect abnormalities lowers from 92% to 33% because the content of the implant (a gel or a liquid) may block the view and because the scar tissue surrounding the implant tightens. Additional X-ray views may be required, and other imaging tests such as MRI may be required in this population.
• False-positive readings on a mammogram occur when cancer is not present, but a mammogram is read as abnormal. Most of these false-positive readings will turn out not to be cancer. At all ages, 5% 10% of mammograms are abnormal and are followed up with additional testing (a fine-needle aspiration [or sampling], surgical biopsy, or ultrasound).
• False-negative findings occur when mammograms appear normal even though breast cancer is actually present and are more common in younger women than in older women. Currently, the rate of false-negatives in mammography is around 8% to 10%.

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