Dr Bijit Kumar Duara, Professor & HOD, Department of Radio diagnosis and interventional Radiology at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Guwahati, has emphasized on the importance of early detection of breast cancer as the only key to reduce mortality from this rapid disease. He also broke the common myth that breast cancer can occur only in older age groups. The percentage of women between 30-40 years being detected with the disease has more than doubled in the last two decades. In recent times about 50% of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year are below 50 years of age.
In younger women (15-35 years), non-cancerous lumps Fibro adenomas are more common. Fibro adenomas comprise about 50% of all breast biopsies, and this rate rises to 75% for biopsies in women under the age of 20 years. Speaking on the importance of timely diagnosis and advanced medical technologies, Dr Duara said, ” October marks breast cancer awareness month and women must be aware on advanced techniques such as Vacuum-Assisted Breast Biopsy (VABB) which helps to access the smallest of lumps which may be missed getting sampled in traditional biopsy methods.”
