10 - Find breast cancers as early as the experts do - 3/4 (Parenchymal contour changes / medial half)

There are four regions on the mammograms where most of the breast cancers can be found. Radiologists need to systematically search for non-specific asymmetric densities with or without architectural distortion, stellate and circular/oval shaped lesions and microcalcifications in these four regions.

Our didactic lecture series -Find breast cancers as early as the experts do - provides a sufficient number of narrated practice cases for each of these regions. After discussing how to find early breast cancer in screening, complete workup of each case follows, using the  multimodality approach (complete mammographic workup, hand-held and automated breast ultrasound, breast MRI and preoperative interventional methods). The final diagnosis is supported by large format histopathology images.

This lecture is a combination of finding breast cancers in the medial half of the breast and parenchymal contour changes on the mammograms.

After having examined the four regions on the mammograms where most of the breast cancers can be found, a thorough analysis of the parenchymal contours is necessary when dense fibroglandular tissue is seen on the mammograms.

This lecture demonstrates the different types of parenchymal contour changes and helps avoid making mistakes. Complete workup of each case follows, using the multimodality approach (mammographic workup, hand-held and automated breast ultrasound, breast MRI and preoperative interventional methods). The final diagnosis is supported by large format histopathology images.

At the end of this lecture the rationale of examining the mastectomy side is described and demonstrated by showing convincing examples.