Breast Imaging Program

Seattle Cancer Care Alliance encourages all women over 40 to have regular annual mammograms. Simply being a woman and aging puts all women over age 40 at average risk for breast cancer. Lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise can play a role in your risk for getting cancer. Mammography can detect breast cancer at its earliest, most curable stages.

Now offering Mobile mammography, a convenient alternative to getting your regular mammogram. This van will make regular visits to UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics, Safeway stores, and other locations. For more information, click here.

Mammography at SCCA 

Digital mammograms
SCCA is the only all-digital facility in Seattle and has the largest all-digital facility in Western Washington. Digital mammography captures X-ray images digitally which radiologists can read and manipulate right away for a more accurate diagnosis. “This technology is better at finding breast cancers, gives fewer false positive results, and is more comfortable for the patient,” says Dr. Constance Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Breast Imaging at SCCA.To make an appointment for a digital mammogram, click here. 

Privacy, comfort, immediate results
Even though most are benign, when a woman discovers a suspicious lump or other concern, it can be a stressful experience. At the Women’s Center we understand this. Our breast imaging specialists provide interpretations and results from mammograms and other imaging studies immediately after each test. If additional imaging studies are needed, they are done that day as well.

There are three digital mammography rooms at the Women's Center, each with its own changing room. But the best part is that after your mammogram, you will get the results immediately and in private.

If further studies are needed, the Women’s Center offers emotional support, same-day biopsies, and a team of experts standing by to assist in every way possible. 

The digital difference
Recent studies have shown that digital mammography detects up to 28 percent more cancers than film mammography in women 50 years of age and younger, pre- and perimenopausal women, and in women with dense breast tissue. A 28 percent increase in accuracy means earlier detection, and most importantly, a better chance of a cure.

Additional tests for breast cancer  If there is an abnormality on your mammogram, you may be asked to have additional mammograms, an ultrasound, or possibly a stereotactic biopsyof the suspicious area.

• Diagnostic imaging—ultrasound
  Ultrasound can be used to evaluate lumps that are hard to see on a mammogram--to help distinguish between a tumor and a cyst for example--and as part of other procedures such as ultrasound-guided needle biopsy. Ultrasound is not used for routine breast cancer screening because it does not consistently detect certain early signs of cancer that can be seen on a mammogram.
  
  The Women's Center has three ultrasound rooms, each with state-of-the-art imaging equipment. As with our mammography, you will get the results of your ultrasound test immediately.
• Stereotactic biopsy 
  A less-invasive alternative to a surgical biopsy, stereotactic biopsies radiologists collect small core tissue samples with a special needel and computer-aided equipment that pinpoints the suspected tumor. These samples are evaluated by a pathologist to see if cancer is present.

Our goal at the Women's Center

In all that we do at the Women’s Center, our goal is to provide you with the very best imaging services you need, and if necessary, the very best possible chance for early detection and effective treatment. The sooner, the better.

Recent studies on MRI scans

Dr. Constance Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Breast Imaging at SCCA (pictured right), led research that showed MRIs find more cancers in the other, or contralateral, breast of women newly diagnosed with the disease in one breast than mammography and clinical exams do. From this research, she co-authored new American Cancer Society guidelines regarding when women at high risk for breast cancer should have annual MRI scans in addition to annual mammograms.

In July 2007, Dr. Lehman won the Ladies Home Journal Breakthrough Award. For the story, click here.

Watch a KOMO-TV interview with Dr. Lehman: click here. 

For more information about MRIs, click here.

 

October 2007