Breast Cancer Awareness Month: How mammogram machines work, why they’re important

KETTERING — Women are supposed to get a mammogram screening every year, but often times they don’t because they think its scary or are nervous.

News Center 7 received a walkthrough to learn exactly how they work.

“Oftentimes women may come in with preconceived notions about what having a mammogram is,” said Meghan Musser, medical director of Kettering Breast Evaluation Centers.

At Kettering Health, some of their machines give control to the patients.

“It really can take away some of that anxiety, especially those first time patients,” Musser said.

The mammogram takes photos of the breasts from multiple angles, then a doctor takes those pictures and looks for anything abnormal that doesn’t belong in the breast tissue.

“I’m looking for any masses, calcifications any change in the tissue from a prior mammogram,” Musser said.

They also check the density of the tissue.

Musser says there are four categories that go from A to D:

A - Fatty

B - Scattered fibroglandular

C- Heterogeneously

D - Extremely dense

The more dense the tissue, the less clear the pictures come out.

“The picture of the fatty breast tissue, and we see this star if this was a cancer, it would be very easy for us to detect,” Musser said. “As we go further up and category, it can be harder for us to detect this star.”

This makes density an independent risk factor for developing breast cancer, and the only way to check for it is to get a mammogram, which is why women are encouraged to come in for screenings.

“Our ultimate goal is to find cancer, that’s not palpable for a patient, we want to find it at its earliest stage,” Musser said.

From checking in to having your appointment, the entire process only takes about 15 minutes—15 minutes that can save your life.

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