Fact Friday!

It is #FactFriday y’all!

This week’s #MythMonday stated that a “Routine mammograms prevent breast cancer.”

This is a common misconception because many people associate mammograms with preventative care. Although mammograms are important, they do not PREVENT breast cancer. However, they are a means of DIAGNOSING breast cancer. Thus, it is involved in diagnosis and not preventative care. Preventative care includes actions, such as leading an active lifestyle and having proper nutrition.

Routine mammograms are a form of diagnosing because the purpose of having a routine mammogram is to find the breast cancer as early as possible for the best outcome. This is because early diagnosis is key in increasing your survival rate because the earlier the breast cancer is detected, the less severe it will be, meaning the easier it is to treat because the cancer has not become aggressive. You could think of it as a newborn versus an older child in a way because newborns are more susceptible to illnesses as they are very young, while older children are less susceptible to illnesses because their immune system is more developed. In a similar way, an early diagnosis is hopefully diagnosing the tumor when it has just begun to form, so it is not as developed and more susceptible to “attacks” from treatments.

Although routine mammograms do not prevent breast cancer, they are still important as they lead to better outcomes because of early diagnosis, which is key for survival.

Stay tuned for more information about mammograms!

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Information and image obtained from the following websites:

https://www.breastcancer.org/risk/factors/slideshows/myths-facts?slide=4

https://integrisok.com/services/medical/mammograms