Breast Cancer Screening:
Maximizing Detection
Initially, breast cancer screening seemed straightforward: find tumors as early as possible, when they are easiest to treat. But as scientists have learned more about the different types of breast cancer, it's become increasingly clear that breast cancer screening is about more than finding cancer cells: It's about finding tumors that have the potential to be deadly. This realization has raised questions-- yet again--about the use of mammography screening.
Read more about the screening controversy and some of the new screening techniques currently being studied in clinical trials.
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Personalized Breast Screening
Researchers are not only trying to identify new screening technologies, they are also trying to develop new protocols that maximize the benefit of these technologies. Personalized screening, also sometimes referred to as risk-based screening, is a new technique that that is currently being discussed and explored. This approach would use a woman's individual breast cancer risk factors to determine the age she should start screening, how often she should be screened, and what type of breast cancer she is at risk of developing. One of the leaders in this field of research is breast surgeon Dr. Laura Esserman, the director of the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco.
BCT spoke with Dr. Esserman about personalized screening and a clinical trial she is planning to evaluate its effectiveness.
 Q & A with Dr. Laura Esserman
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Dr. Laura Esserman,
Director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck
Breast Care Center
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Q: What is personalized breast screening?
A: Personalized screening is a process to determine how frequently you should be screened based on your actual risk of getting which type of breast cancer. We know that breast cancer is not one disease and we don't treat all breast cancers the same way. We determine treatments by, for example, whether the tumor has estrogen receptors or if it is aggressive. Yet, we continue to screen everyone in the same way.
Q: How would you study personalized screening?
A: We are trying to set up a trial where we would compare standard annual screening for women between the ages of 40 and 80 to a personalized screening program that would assign a woman to a screening frequency based on her actual risk of developing breast cancer and which type of cancer she is at risk of developing. .
Q: What risk factors would you take into account?
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