Breast Cancer Screening | Types of Mammography | Mammography Procedure | Mammography Findings | Other Screening Procedures

Two kinds of mammograms are available:

• screen-film (or analog) mammography
• full field digital mammography

In screen-film mammography, x-ray beams are captured on a film cassette. Special x-ray machines developed exclusively for breast imaging are used to produce mammography films. These machines use very low doses of radiation and produce high-quality x-rays. The procedure produces an image of the breast tissue on a film, which is examined by a radiologist for abnormalities or evidence of cancer.

In full field digital mammography, x-ray beams are captured on specially designed digital detectors. The digital detector converts the x-ray beams into electronic signals, which are then sent to a computer. The radiologist can review the digital mammogram on a high-resolution computer monitor, like the ones shown above.

Is digital mammography better than screen-film mammography?

The National Cancer Institute and the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) completed a large clinical study involving over 49,000 women in the US and Canada. This study is referred to as DMIST (Digital Mammography Imaging Screening Trial). Women who participated in the study had both a screen-film and a digital mammogram as part of their annual breast cancer screening exam.

The DMIST study showed that digital mammography is better than screen-film mammography for the following women:

• Women under the age of 50, no matter what level of breast tissue density they had
• Women of any age with very dense breast tissue
• Pre-or peri-menopausal women (defined as women who had a last menstrual period within 12 months of their mammogram)

Screen-film and digital mammography were equally beneficial to all other women in the study.

Whether you have a screen-film or digital mammogram, the most important thing is to get your annual mammogram.