Why is detecting breast cancer early important

Breast cancers that are found because they are causing symptoms tend to be larger and more advanced. In contrast, breast cancers found during screening exams are more likely to be smaller and still confined to the breast. The size of a breast cancer and how far it has spread are two of the most important factors in predicting the prognosis or outlook of a woman with the disease. A mammogram can find breast cancer before it can be felt.

While it is the best screening tool we have, it is not perfect. When mammography is combined with clinical breast exams and breast self-exams, your chances for finding cancer are even greater. This falls to just over 1 in 10 women when ovarian cancer is diagnosed at the most advanced stage. Find out more about ovarian cancer diagnosis. Almost 9 in 10 of lung cancer patients will survive their disease for at least a year if diagnosed at the earliest stage.

This falls to around 1 in 5 people when lung cancer is diagnosed at the most advanced stage. Find out more about lung cancer diagnosis. There can be several reasons for delays in cancer diagnosis, for example:. In the UK, national screening programmes can help diagnose cancers at an early stage, when treatment is more likely to be successful. Tell your doctor as soon as possible.

Office for National Statistics. Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England - Office for National Statistics. Routes to Diagnosis. Accessed: January How do I check for cancer? Seeing the doctor. Inclusion of the pre-screening phase in which thermal imaging could be applied and software support to mammographic detection of tumor are suggested.

Results: This paper describes the breast cancer, current screening program and techniques for early-stage breast cancer detection, module of medical information system MEDIS.

NET for creating screening list based on the analysis of risk factors affecting the occurrence of breast cancer, mammography and role of thermal imaging in the process of early breast cancer detection.

It also presents an overview on important achievements in computer-aided detection and diagnosis of breast cancer in mammography and thermography.

Conclusions: Based on the obtained results, dynamics of preventive examinations for particular groups of women that is different from the standard two-year examinations, can be successfully defined.