Health, Cancer, Women's Health
When was your last breast screening appointment? Last year, the year before? Or are you under 50 and haven’t yet been offered breast screening with the NHS Breast Screening Programme.
If you are between the ages of 50 and 71, the NHS will offer you a screening appointment every three years. If you want peace of mind earlier, in your 40s or after 71, where would you go?
I would head straight to OneWelbeck, in the heart of London’s medical district.
You may remember I visited OneWelbeck to experience their advanced Whole Body 3D Mole Mapping Service, so I was delighted when they extended an invitation for me to experience their Enhanced Breast Screening Service.
OneWelbeck offer the most comprehensive breast screening service in the UK. Their Enhanced Breast Screening offers 3D mammograms (the NHS only offer 2D) with both a radiologist analysing the results and backed up by ProFound AI® Solutions which compares previous images. A clinical study found that ProFound AI improved breast cancer detection by an average of 8%, and reduces unnecessary patient recalls by 7%, compared to mammography alone.
It is the combination of highly skilled radiographers, trained radiologists and the finest equipment, 3D imaging and AI intelligence, that means you have the very best opportunity of identifying any abnormalities in your breasts.
If you have Dense Breasts, sophisticated equipment called Quantra (automated density profiling), can identify this, and you will also be offered ultrasound, which can detect abnormalities where imaging alone can’t.
Mammography is still the only tool proven to reduce Breast Cancer deaths with early treatment. Dense breast tissue cannot be felt accurately during a clinical breast examination or when we examine our breasts ourselves. It’s thought that breast density could be hereditary in part, and your breast density may change with age and as you go through the menopause.
There is a reporting system called Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) which is an automated computer grading programme. This grading is recorded during your Enhanced Breast Screening mammogram. The system uses the letters A-D to identify breast density.
A: Almost entirely fatty
B: Scattered areas of fibro glandular density
C: Heterogeneously dense
D: Extremely dense
Having a high breast density increases your breast cancer risk when compared to those who don’t have this condition. Having dense breasts may also increase the risk that some cancers might be missed.
Fatty breast tissue appears dark on a mammogram, while dense tissue appears white, which makes it difficult to see through and harder to identify some breast cancers on mammograms, which also appear white.
3D mammography allows the radiologist to see lesions hidden within the tissue and better characterise their appearance to diagnose abnormalities. If the mammogram shows you have dense breasts, the radiologist will also offer breast ultrasound so a more comprehensive view of your breasts can be achieved.
If you have breast implants, it’s even more important to have enhanced breast screening, as the implant may be shielding any abnormalities that won’t be detected by conventional screening.
Prior to joining the NHS breast screening programme at 50, I had regular private mammograms with BUPA during my forties. My maternal grandmother had breast cancer later in her life, so I have always been aware just how important regular screening is. When booking my breast screening appointment with OneWelbeck, they asked where my previous mammograms had taken place so they could obtain images ahead of my appointment for comparison.
On arriving at OneWelbeck I checked into the Women’s Health Department on the sixth floor. I was soon introduced to Johanna Kelsey, Manager of the Enhanced Breast Screening department who would be carrying out my mammogram. Johanna explained the procedure to me as we entered a spacious room with the most sophisticated screening equipment available in the UK. She also told me that OneWelbeck had been able to obtain all my previous images and would be comparing today’s images with those of the past. I found this so reassuring that the radiologist and the AI detection system would be able to see any changes that had occurred over the past year, since my last mammogram.
Johanna quickly and efficiently took the four images necessary to examine my breasts. She explained how breast tissue density can make it hard to detect abnormalities and if the mammogram showed my breasts were dense, I would be offered ultrasound.
I must admit that I wasn’t aware of how dense breast tissue can hamper breast cancer detection in conventional mammography. Johanna, who has 30 years of experience as a radiographer, is on a mission to make us all aware of just how important it is that we know whether we have dense breasts. And, if we do, we can make the decision to have regular Enhanced Breast Screening.
Once dressed I waited in the calm private waiting room of the Enhanced Breast Screening department. Johanna returned quickly to inform me that on the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System, my breasts were B and only showing slight scattered areas of fibro glandular density. I wouldn’t need to have ultrasound. My images would now be analysed by a radiologist and by ProFound AI detection, and the results sent to me within 24 hours.
In fact, my results were sent securely only a couple of hours after I returned home. I was delighted to read that having compared my results with previous mammograms, there was no focal mass, distortion or suspicious microcalcification within either breast. It was also confirmed that there is scattered fibro glandular breast tissue (BI-RADS B).
Those few moments of discomfort are nothing compared to the peace of mind a comprehensive, Enhanced Breast Screening can give you. I’ve already made a note to book my next screening but I’m confident that OneWelbeck will also remind me.
And, if you think that London is too far away to travel for screening, I bumped into a friend at the hospital who was there from Sheffield, it’s really not that far away!
Enhanced Breast Screening at OneWelbeck costs £300 but what price can you put on peace of mind?
Enhanced Breast Screening was kindly gifted by OneWelbeck for this editorial feature
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