Doctors at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center have begun using a revolutionary new procedure that can detect breast cancer years before a tumor would show up on a mammogram.
The new technique, ductal lavage, allows physicians to find the cancer where it originates – in the milk ducts.
And although doctors stress the test will not replace a mammogram, it can help high-risk women catch the disease early.
“By the time a mammogram shows an abnormality, the tumor has been growing for a good six to eight years,” explained Dr. Sheldon Feldman, chief of Beth Israel’s breast-cancer center.
Betania Villalona, who had a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer last January, was tested last week in her healthy left breast.
“I’m just so glad this test is available now,” the Staten Island X-ray technician, 49, said. “It reassures me that if the cancer were to recur, doctors now would be able to catch it well ahead of time.”
Clinical trials revealed about 75 percent of women tested with ductal lavage have normal results, 23 percent have atypical or potentially precancerous cells, and 2 percent have cancerous cells.
A relatively new procedure, called a ductoscopy, is performed on the 2 percent who have cancerous cells. It involves inserting a special tube into the affected milk duct so that the surgeon can remove the tiny malignancy.
But doctors stress that ductal lavage – which costs about $500 and isn’t always covered by insurance – isn’t for everyone.
“We are only using this procedure now on women who either have had a previous breast cancer or are at high risk for one due to a family history,” Feldman said.