Breast Cancer Awareness: Diagnosis

Comments Below: 0

October is breast cancer awareness month.

Tonight we kick off a series of reports on the disease with one local woman's story.

It highlights the importance of getting regular screening mammograms.

Marilyn Taylor, Cancer Survivor, "I've had a routine mammogram all my life, well since I was 40."

A routine mammogram a year ago just might have saved Marilyn Taylor's life.

Marilyn, "It was a surprise."

Dr. John Nelson with Battlefield Imaging noticed some suspicious spots.

Dr. John Nelson, "What I see here are multiple different kinds of calcification. Some are very dense some are kind of faint some are irregular some are large some are small."

Dr. Nelson, "This could be an indication of cancer in the breast."

Marilyn, "I didn't expect it. I had no reason to uh have suspected that I would ever have breast cancer."

But at 56 years old she did.

Marilyn, "I had DCIS, which is ductal carcinoma insitu and insitu is the key word because that means that it was contained with in the ducts."

Dr. Nelson says that makes it easier to treat.

He credits Marilyn's yearly mammograms with finding the cancer at this stage, before it became a lump and spread.

Dr. Nelson, "We're able to detect breast cancer earlier than any other way, earlier than a patient can feel it or your doctor can feel it. We're actually able to detect breast cancer before it's clinically evident."

He says usually women seek medical attention when they feel a lump.

Dr. Nelson, "At that point it means tumor in most women it's going to be the size of a marble or ping pong ball where as Marilyn's tumors were microscopic size. You can imagine the growth. "

In fact he says it could take 5 to 7 years before they get to a size where they can be felt.

Dr. Nelson, "The real risk is the tumor has gotten so big that it spread to the lymph nodes or throughout the rest of the body at that point currently with our medical treatment it's not curable."

It's a risk Marilyn did not have to face.

Marilyn, "I'm through."

She had surgery to remove both breasts.

One year after a frightening diagnosis, she's cancer free.

Marilyn, "That's just not what we expect because you just always think it's a death sentence but there are so many who are cured and even more lately and probably even more the next few years because of um new technology."

Doctors suggests women get a baseline mammogram at 35 and annual exams starting at 40.

Women at High risk should get them earlier and more frequently.

Tomorrow we look at technologies that help doctors find cancer early.