By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Wiki Commons

BANGI, Dec 28 2015 – The best way to prevent Breast Cancer is for early  diagnosis and treatment by qualified experts although a lot of progress has been  achieved to detect cancer effectively.

Many factors lead to the risk of breast cancer, and this makes it difficult to contain the disease, said Prof Dr Zulfiqar Muhamed Annuar, specialist and lecturer from the Department of Radiology, The Chancellor Tuanku Muhriz Hospital (HCTM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

Prof Zulfiqar said the main imaging methods for detecting breast cancer are  mammography with ultrasound as the most effective supplementary imaging.

She was speaking at her Professor’s Premier Lecture titled Breast Cancer: Early Detection and Diagnosis Using Imaging, at the Tuanku Jaafar Chancellor  Medical Education Complex, Kuala Lumpur recently.

“In the field of mammography, progress has been achieved with a transition from Analogue Mammography to Screen-Film, to Digital Mammography that uses computers to detect an abnormality in the images.

“In the field of Ultrasound, progress has been made with a transition from two-dimensional analog imaging that produces high-resolution images, to the production volume of three-dimensional images automatically,” she said.

For breast biopsy, i.e. the removal of breast tissue to examine it for signs of breast cancer or other problems, progress has been made with the rise in use of excision biopsy through surgery, to Percutaneous Biopsy, or a needle biopsy by taking a small portion of tissue, using only a small incision, so it can be examined under a microscope.

“At first, a large semi-automatic needle was used. Then we acquired a large  needle that uses suction vacuum,” she explained.

She said that the progress and development in the areas of mammography, breast ultrasound and breast biopsy using imaging techniques has contributed  to better detection and determination of diagnosis of breast cancer at an early stage.

“The combination of mammography and ultrasound produce higher sensitivity and specialization rates in the detection of breast cancer at an early stage,” she explained further.

She also gave assurances to women not to fear the biopsy procedure as it is necessary to carry out to save them from cancer.

Conversely, if they seek out too much information on the procedures, they might also feel depressed, she added.