– As easy as drinking a cup of tea
IF fully utilized, the newly acquired digital mammogram machine at the Davao Doctors Hospital promises to lower breast cancer deaths in Davao.
This surfaced during a press briefing at the Cafe’ Au Lait conducted last Wednesday by a panel of experts of DDH. The machine, a Siemens Mammomat Inspiration, is the first and only digital mammogram machine in Mindanao. It is installed at the DDH Breast Center.
The machine’s features were discussed by Dr. James Edward Mangaoil and Dr. Manuel R. Garcia Jr., surgical oncologists; Dr. Elizabeth Reinoso, radiologist; Dr. Ma. Lourdes Lacanilao, radiation oncologist, and Dr. Honey Sarita Abarquez, medical oncologist.
“This is a new technology by Siemens which offers a quick, easy and painless mammography,” Dr. Reinoso said, adding that in the past, patients complained of pain and discomfort after undergoing the old mammogram procedure using the old analog technology.
“Kaya tuloy maraming mga babaeng natatakot sa old mammogram,” Dr. Garcia said. “Here in this new machine, the patient feels only a little pressure on the breast, but it’s not painful.”
The experts claim that the positive reaction of patients is borne by interviews that they made with patients after undergoing the procedure.
“It is very fast, because we don’t anymore use films and process them. It’s all digital images. After the technologist gets the images, it will take just seconds for it to be released, so the patient does not have to wait long,” Dr. Mangaoil said.
Garcia added, “It is the best machine for detecting early breast cancer kahit na wala pang bukol (even in the absence of a lump). It is accurate and painless. The machine can detect cancer in cases where the lump can be palpable (felt) after two years yet.”
Breast cancer is more treatable when detected early.
The Philippines has the highest incidence of breast cancer in Asia. According to the Philippine Cancer Society, an average of 6,360 breast cancer patients die every year. This is because many girls would not want to undergo analog mammography due to the pain, aside from having fear of discovering that, indeed, they have cancer.
Based on 2005 cancer facts and estimates, Garcia said every year around 15,000 Filipino women will develop breast cancer, and around 6,000 to 7,000 of them will die of it.
There are breast cancers that are not palpable and can therefore only be detected through mammography, he said.
Reynoso said screening mammography is usually done on patients 40 years and over.
The experts said there are three ways of proper breast care in women:
One: monthly breast self-examination (“We have to teach patients how to do breast examination on their own every month”;
Two: Patients 40 years old and over have to do monthly breast self-examination, clinical breast examination done by the doctors, or their health care provider, annually,
Three: Screening mammography yearly.
For patients 20 to 39 years old, two important things have to be done: one, they should also do monthly breast self-examination and two, clinical breast examination by their doctors every three years, the panel said.
According to a study done in Singapore in 2005, the peak incidence of breast cancer in Asia is between 40 to 50 years old, compared to the US and the West when it is very common among the elderly, Garcia said.
“We found this to be true in our practice in the Philippines,” Dr. Abarquez, a veteran oncologist, said, adding that it is very rare that breast cancer shows up below 35 years old.
The removal of the pain and inconvenience factors will goad more patients to avail themselves of the services of the digital mammogram machine.
“This way, more early detections can be made and more patients treated early and saved,” Dr. Abarquez agreed. [AMA]
