Fw: Mammograms miss 55% of tumors in augmented women ...

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----- Original Message -----

From: " ilena rose " <ilena2000@...>

<ilena@...>

Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 9:25 AM

Subject: Mammograms miss 55% of tumors in augmented women ...

> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2001845348_implant28m.html

>

> Implants may skew mammograms

>

> By Warren King

> Seattle Times medical reporter

>

>

> Mammograms are less likely to detect breast cancer in women with breast

> augmentation than they are in women who have not had the implants, Seattle

> researchers have found.

>

> A study led by Group Health ative's Center for Health Studies found

> that mammography missed 55 percent of breast cancers in women who had

> surgical implants for augmentation, compared with 33 percent in women who

> didn't have the implants.

>

> " Women with these implants need to be extra careful ... They shouldn't be

> too reassured by a negative (mammogram) result, and if they feel a lump,

> they should contact their physician, " said Miglioretti, a Center for

> Health Studies investigator and lead scientist in the research reported in

> today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

>

> Miglioretti said implants show up as a solid, white mass on mammography

film

> and make it more difficult to see some of the tissue.

>

> Breast augmentation - the use of surgical implants for cosmetic reasons -

is

> increasing. More than 268,000 women in the United States received implants

> in 2002, an 11 percent increase over two years, according to the American

> Society of Plastic Surgeons. Figures on the number of Washington state

> implants were not available.

>

> More on breast implants

>

>

> The sale of silicone breast implants is restricted under a ruling last

month

> by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency found that safety

> questions about the devices still remain, 12 years after problems prompted

a

> sales ban. Officials said they need more information about how implant

> ruptures can be decreased and about the consequences of rupture.

> Silicone implants will be available to women only through studies

conducted

> by manufacturers to assess safety and effectiveness. Saline implants are

> available on the general market. When they rupture, the saline water is

> absorbed by the body; when silicone implants rupture, the gel can get

stuck

> in tissue.

>

>

>

> The researchers did not find any more false positives in the women with

> implants than in those without. Nor were the cancers found in women with

> implants more advanced, despite mammography's decreased ability to detect

> tumors in those women. Miglioretti didn't know the reason.

>

> With the help of six other medical institutions and funding by the

National

> Cancer Institute, researchers collected data on 1.7 million women who had

> mammograms in Seattle, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North

Carolina,

> California or Vermont.

>

> Among these women, they found 137 with implants who had developed breast

> cancer, and compared them with 685 women without implants who had the

> disease. They then determined which proportion of cancers in each group

was

> detected by mammography.

>

> Miglioretti emphasized the importance of regular mammography for women,

> which is recommended for women beginning at age 40. It did catch 45

percent

> of the cancers in the women with implants, and 67 percent in those without

> implants, she said.

>

> Cancers in women without implants likely were missed, Miglioretti said,

> because a large proportion were younger women with dense tissue.

Mammograms

> do not detect tumors as well in dense tissue.

>

> Still, mammograms are an important tool in cancer detection. " It is

> important to find cancers in the earliest stage, so there is a better

chance

> for survival, " Miglioretti said.

>

> Warren King: 206-464-2247 or wking@...

>

>

> ~~~~~~~~~~~

>

> www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

> (new links)

>

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