If you get a call from your physician telling you that your mammogram was abnormal, do not panic. Mammogram abnormality does not always represent breast cancer. Now if you have an abnormal mammogram what to do now?

Experts in the field indicate that if an abnormality is detected in the mammogram performing a breast biopsy is the best strategy, for follow up of the abnormality even though there are several other options available.

Breast biopsy is considered to be the standard approach to mammogram abnormality, and recently a report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) compared the effectiveness of biopsy, with four other available options. These options includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound imaging, positron emission tomography (PET) scanning; and scintimammography.

The report convincingly concludes that biopsy is the gold standard; when it comes to the long-term follow up an abnormality that is detected in the mammogram.

Of course biopsy is more invasive, but is a more accurate test and requires sampling of the breast tissue. The removed tissue is analyzed under the microscope using special stain to determine the presence of malignancy.

The four tests mentioned above were not as accurate as a biopsy. These tests missed between 4 percent and 9 percent of breast cancers in women with average risk. The report also suggest that in higher risk women the miss rate would be even higher.


AHRQ report states that, use of MRI missed 38 cancers for every 1,000 women; ultrasound missed 50 tumors for every 1,000 women; and PET scans missed 76 per 1,000 women. Scintimammography, which is a nuclear medicine test method, missed 93 tumors for every 1,000 women.

So bottom line, the good old breast biopsy is the best test to evaluate for any abnormality that was detected by mammogram.



Posted by: Betsy

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