JACKSONVILLE, Fla — As Breast Cancer Awareness month is coming to a close, a Jacksonville doctor from the Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center is encouraging women to get their mammograms.

“Because as women, we get busy taking care of everyone else, and you just want to remember to don’t forget to take care of yourself and put your health first and do your screenings,” says Dr. Laila Samiian, the Chief of Breast Surgical Oncology at Baptist MS Anderson Cancer Center. “Because when you do your screening mammogram, if a cancer happens to be found, it’ll be found at an earlier stage, which is curable most of the time. So it’s more likely to be curable if it’s caught early, and it’s definitely going to be caught much earlier if it’s seen on a mammogram than if you wait until you feel a lump.”

Dr. Samiian says there have been advancements in screening for breast cancer. “So the mammograms, they’re are like X-rays of your breasts. But now, we have 3-D tomosynthesis, and most places will do…it’s like 11 cuts…even though it looks like you’re doing one, two pictures. Those pictures are actually being done, 11 cuts through the breasts, so it’s like a movie that looks through and through your breasts. So it’s a lot more accurate than it used to be. There’s an automated whole breast ultrasound that can add to your screening as a supplement to your mammogram. It doesn’t replace the mammogram because the mammogram will pick up things that the ultrasound can’t pick up. The ultrasound sometimes can pick up things that the mammogram can’t pick up. so they’re kind of used in conjunction for women who have very dense breasts or at high risk; they can add that. Breast MRI is used for women who have high-risk for developing breast cancer, such as if they have a family history, abnormal biopsies in the past, or genetic mutations. They can do Breast MRIs, which is really [an] ultimate screening, but again, it won’t pick up calcifications that a mammogram can pick up. So all of those tests are used in conjunction with each other for us to detect abnormalities sooner.”

You can hear more about testing and treatment in the full interview with Dr. Samiian on Jacksonville’s Morning News.

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