Women with specific symptoms of the breast – any breast lump,
skin thickening, nipple discharge particularly if it is blood stained, nipple retraction
or any unusual pain or swelling.
Women at high risk for breast cancer – Any woman who has a
family history of breast cancer is at a high risk for developing breast cancer. For eg, if
a woman’s mother and sister or two sisters have had breast cancer, the chance of this
woman developing breast cancer is almost 50% more than average population. Women who are
overweight are also more at risk. Women who have already suffered from breast cancer in
one breast, need to get their mammogram done annually.
Women on Hormone Replacement
Therapy (HRT)- An increasing number of
women are resorting to HRT after menopause, for it's beneficial effects. Though HRT by itself does not induce breast cancer, it
could flare up a pre-existing cancer of the breast. Hence base line and annual mammograms
among women on HRT is mandatory.
As a screening procedure over the age of forty years. In developed
countries a mammography is used somewhat like a preventive measure and the American Cancer
Society recommends that mammogram should be done every one or two years after of age of
forty and every year over the age of fifty, even in completely normal women. This strategy
has helped pick up cancers approximately two years before they would become clinically
evident, at a stage when they could be completely cured. Such cancers, which are small,
are called occult or minimal cancers.
In our country, such widespread use of screening mammography is not feasible, because of
socio-economic considerations. However women who are at high risk, who can afford and
those who undergo annual checkups (e.g. company sponsored executive check ups) should
undergo a mammography, so-called opportunistic mammography.
