This kind of mammogram is called a selective or screening mammogram. This process is chosen according to the distinctiveness and preferences of women to find breast cancer when there are no obvious symptoms. Generally, a mammogram necessitates two radiographs or images of each breast. These images make it likely to identify possible tumors which cannot be felt through the skin or to find micro-calcifications that occasionally are a sign of the presence of breast cancer (What is a Mammogram, 2010). Mammograms can also be utilized to find breast cancer after having discovered a lump or other indication or symptom of the cancerous tumor. This kind of mammogram is called a diagnostic mammogram. Some indications of breast cancer are pain, skin thickening, nipple discharge or a change in breast size or shape. Nevertheless, these indications can also be a sign of a benign abnormal cellular growth. A diagnostic mammogram may also be utilized to assess alterations found during a screening mammogram or to look at breast tissue when it is hard to get a screening mammogram because of particular conditions, for instance, the existence of breast implants (What is a Mammogram, 2010).

The age at which to start mammography for screening is very controversial. There have been eight key trials having to do with mammography screening. The change in breast cancer death has varied extensively amongst these studies. Differences in randomization methods, superiority of the mammograms, and period of follow-up and developing treatments for breast cancer throughout the trials have made it hard to come to a conclusion about mammographic screening. There have been several analyses of the effects of mammographic screening. Differences in these draw from the time they were done, the occurrence or nonexistence of follow-up data from individual trials, and the leaving out of certain trials in some analyses (Breast Disorders and Breast Cancer Screening, 2011).

An agreement has materialized that women between fifty and sixty-nine years should...

Results of a number of breast cancer screening trials has found a twenty six percent decrease in breast cancer death over seven to nine years amongst women screened at ages fifty to seventy-four years. For women first screened in their forties, the scale of breast cancer death decrease is at best eighteen percent after ten to eighteen years of follow-up. Even though some strategies talk about beginning mammographic screening earlier in women with a family history of breast cancer, statistics on the sensitivity of mammograms show no better cancer discovery rates in this group. On the other hand, due to a superior pretest probability of breast cancer in those with a family history, the positive predictive value of mammograms is elevated for those women and consequently the false-positive rate is subordinate for them. The amount needed to be screened to avert one death from breast cancer is thought to be between fifteen hundred and twenty five hundred for women screened in their forties. Additional, nearly one half of women screened starting at age forty have at least one irregular screening mammogram throughout the following ten-year period, leading to extra mammographic views and biopsies for a large amount (Breast Disorders and Breast Cancer Screening, 2011).
References

Barke, Lora. (n.d.). Screening for Breast Cancer: A New Approach. Retrieved from http://www.eradimaging.com/site/printerfriendly.cfm?ID=637

Breast Cancer Screening. (2006), Retrieved from http://www.ons.org/Publications/Positions/BreastCancer/

Breast Cancer Screening Modalities. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/screening/breast/healthprofessional/page4

Breast Disorders and Breast Cancer Screening. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/womens-health/breast-disorders-and-cancer-screening/

What is a Mammogram? (2010). Retrieved from http://medicaltranslationworks.com/2010/10/21/what-is-a-mammogram/