Breast cancer did not rest during COVID

The COVID pandemic was terrible in many ways for all of us. The 600,000 Americans who lost their lives paid the highest price, but all of us were somehow adversely affected by this tragedy. From loss of work or business to collective anxiety about getting infected, COVID and its remnants are quickly unforgettable.

One of the lesser-known or undervalued effects of COVID is the American “handkering” that has significantly reduced the preventive medicine procedure, screening for early detection of cancer. Nationally, screening colonoscopy and mammography have decreased by as much as 50% compared to pre-COVID numbers. During this time, cancer is not on vacation. It’s just progressing and growing with undetected bids, and it’s time to finally present it as more advanced and difficult to treat in the future. The door is open and there is a welcome mat for breast cancer in women who have postponed mammogram screening due to COVID. These women literally jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. We have already seen some of these more advanced cancers that have been left to grow and spread unabated by a decrease in screening mammograms.

If you are one of these women who postponed your screening study for COVID, now is the time to change tact. No one wants to know that they have cancer, but if you wait for a palpable lump, breast cancer is already in the stage of treatment and cure. The best time to catch and eliminate this killer is when there are no lumps or symptoms in the breast. This is when the cancer is small but can be detected by mammography, ultrasound, or breast MRI screening modality.

Screening guidelines can be confusing and somewhat inconsistent, especially if you are between the ages of 40 and 50. Here are some guidelines that I strongly support as a medical director at the Midland Breast Center, which has over 35 years of experience in breast cancer imaging.

The starting point is to know the risks of your life. It is calculated by a risk model known as Tyrer-Cuzick and is based on several factors such as family history, pregnancy count, hormone exposure, and breast density. You can calculate this risk yourself online. https://ibis.ikonopedia.com/ Alternatively, the Midland Breast Center will calculate it when screening the mammogram. This model shows the percentage of people who will develop breast cancer in your lifetime. The average risk is 5 to 14 percent, the medium risk is 15 to 19 percent, and the high risk is over 20 percent.

If you do not have a family history of breast cancer, it is most likely an average risk. However, this should not make you complacent about the need for an annual screening mammogram. Seventy-five percent of all women who develop breast cancer in their lifetime are the first women to have no family history of breast cancer.

A recommendation for women at average lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is to start screening mammograms annually at age 40 and stop 5-7 years before the expected death. If the breasts are dense (increased glands, fibrous tissue, ducts), the dense breasts increase the risk of cancer and the camouflage effect can hide the breast cancer from breast detection, so mammography In addition, it is advisable to have an annual breast ultrasonography.

Women with moderate lifetime risk are recommended for annual screening of breast MRI, which has a much higher cancer detection rate than mammography and ultrasound, but is expensive and requires IV injection of contrast media. It is an annual screening mammography. With a higher than average lifetime risk.

Recommended for women at lifetime risk and women with a history of breast cancer are annual screening mammography and annual screening breast MRI (6 month intervals, “hypervisilant protocol” for screening. I will call it).

Genetic screening for cancer-causing mutations is also available at the Midland Breast Cancer Center for people with a strong family history of all cancers. If you have a strong family history of cancer, you are obliged to be tested by yourself and your loved ones. Then we can start a screening program for all cancers that you may be at risk of developing.

Knowledge may be scary, but it is power. Worrying about the potential risks you may (or may not) face is a bad strategy in an era when cancer can be cured if it is detected early enough. You can escape from the cancer, but you cannot hide it. If you have it, it will eventually catch up with you, every day you grow it, and spread is the day when your chances of survival fall.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and football time, a popular pastime in West Texas. The NFL has a great slogan, “Crucial Catch,” that refers to catching cancer murderers who are stalking our lives. Early detection of breast cancer can not only win the game, but also save lives. As they say, that life may literally be yours.