This week, Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Courtney Stewart about getting a call-back for more testing after your mammogram. Dr. Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Radiology and a radiologist in the Division of Breast Imaging at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Getting a call- back for more testing after a screening mammogram is fairly common, and it doesn't mean that you have breast cancer. Doctor Courtney Stewart is here to talk about additional testing that might be requested following your mammogram. Doctor Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Radiology, and she's a radiologist in breast imaging at MUSC Women's Health. Doctor Stewart, sometimes women do get a follow up call requesting further testing after their mammogram. Tell us about this scenario.
Dr. Stewart: Well, Bobbi, this is a very common scenario, particularly for women when they're first starting to get mammograms. If we call you back for additional imaging, that may mean we want to do more imaging with mammogram, more imaging with ultrasound or more imaging with both, to help us further characterize an area we see on your screening mammogram.
Conner: And for women who have had annual mammograms for some time, this same scenario can come up where more information is needed.
Dr. Stewart: Yes, it can happen at any age. We do tend to see it frequently with your first mammogram or maybe your first few mammograms, because we just don't have the history of what your breasts look like. We don't have that stability, but it can happen at any age. And for women who have been getting regular mammograms, it's a key reason we recommend that if you are going between facilities, or maybe you move, that you bring your mammograms to each facility so they have your priors for comparisons.
Conner: And when might a repeat mammogram be needed?
Dr. Stewart: So, when we call you back from a screening mammogram, we're calling you back for what we call a diagnostic mammogram. We're going to do different imaging than done on the screening mammogram. We may need an image of a particular area, we may need a different type of image that isn't part of our screening mammogram at all. Those images are taken and the radiologist will look at them while you're there. To determine if we need any further mammogram images or perhaps an ultrasound to help us determine what's going on.
Conner: And tell us about the ultrasound in this scenario. How can that help?
Dr. Stewart: Sometimes we will see an area on the mammogram, and we'll just need the ultrasound to look and see if there's anything in the tissue in that area. Sometimes if we see a mass on your mammogram, we would do an ultrasound to help us determine whether it's a mass that's solid or a cystic, which is a water filled mass in your breast.
Conner: And what is a biopsy in this scenario and when might that be requested?
Dr. Stewart: So a biopsy is when we're taking a sample of the tissue we're worried about, and we send it off to the lab for further evaluation. At the end of your diagnostic workup, the radiologist may feel they need more information by getting a sample or doing a biopsy.
Conner: And after these extra tests, and no biopsy perhaps is requested, are there scenarios where the patient might be requested to have more frequent follow-up in the future?
Dr. Stewart: Yes, there are cases where we say something is probably benign, meaning there's less than a 2% chance of malignancy. In those cases, we put women on a short term follow-up plan. The short term follow-up plan is generally six months and then six months. And then after a year, it's one more one year follow-up. So, for two years we'll be doing shorter term follow-ups.
Conner: Doctor Stewart, thanks for talking with us about mammogram and additional follow-up testing.
Dr. Stewart: Thank you for having me.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
