| Recently there has been an uproar about the new | | | | that it can detect tumors in the breast much sooner, |
| recommendations made by a group concerning the | | | | is the fact that it is much more comfortable for the |
| guidelines for breast cancer screening. The new | | | | women receiving the examination. The traditional |
| recommendations pushed back the recommended | | | | mammogram machine needs to squish the breast |
| age at which women should begin getting regular | | | | between to camera plates in order to get a decent |
| mammograms and doing self examinations to 50 | | | | picture through the dense breast tissue. This process |
| instead of 40. Their reasoning was that these things | | | | is very uncomfortable for women. With the gamma |
| before fifty did very little good. This caused a lot of | | | | camera the picture is taken much more like an xray |
| breast cancer survivors who contracted breast | | | | machine, which puts the patient in no discomfort. |
| cancer before the age of fifty to speak up. They | | | | In addition to the comfort issue and the fact that it |
| took it very personal, stating that they would have | | | | has a much stronger ability to get good pictures and |
| died had that been the recommendation for them. | | | | detect the cancer much sooner, it is also a small |
| Some even found breast cancer while in their thirties. | | | | enough machine that it can be done in the doctor's |
| A successful fight against breast cancer is all about | | | | office. This makes it a lot more convenient as well as |
| early detection. With early detection the survival rate | | | | less costly. |
| is very high. Without that early detection, the rates | | | | In the past, there was a machine called an MRI |
| of survival is a lot lower. One tool that has really | | | | machine that could pick up the cancer even sooner |
| helped in that fight by detecting tumors in the breast | | | | than the gamma camera. However, most did not use |
| at a lot earlier stage is the gamma camera. The | | | | that and doctors hesitated to use it because it |
| gamma camera was invented by a man who was a | | | | required a trip to the hospital as well as cost a lot |
| well known nuclear scientist. He invented the camera | | | | more to have done. This was usually only used for |
| using his knowledge in the nuclear science field. | | | | breast examination purposes if the patient was at a |
| One of the reasons that this method of breast | | | | high risk for breast cancer. |
| examination has become so popular, besides the fact | | | | |