Modern mammography saves or extends lives of women suffering from breast cancer by early detection. Though refined over the years by scientists and researchers, medicine owes the concept of mammography to a German surgeon who first used the technique in the early 1900s and a German researcher in the 1920s who advanced the method.
The German Connection
According to DiscoveriesInMedicine.com, German surgeon Albert Saloman was the first to use X-ray technology, which hit the medical scene in the late 19th century, to detect breast cancer. By using X-ray imaging on infected and already removed breast tissue, Saloman noted several breast cancer types. He never used mammography in his own medical practice, but the technique spread to other doctors and medical researchers. In the 1920s, German researcher W. Vogel provided medical descriptions of how X-ray imaging showed differences in breast tissue, forming a set of identification protocols that doctors continue using today, the website says.
Practical Applications
By the middle 1950s, world-renowned radiologist Dr. Jacob Gershon-Cohen used mammography to screen healthy women for breast cancer in the first attempt at a practical preventative application of the technique. Within the next decade, reports DiscoveriesInMedicine.com, the technique became widely used for diagnosing breast cancer.
Refining the Practice
As the use of mammography grew in the 1960s and '70s, some in the medical field questioned the health impact of the X-rays on women and whether it exposed patients to high levels of radiation. Those concerns led to creation of an imaging film that reduced radiation emitted, says DiscoveriesInMedicine.com.
More refining of the technique would follow a four-year study by the National Cancer Institute in the early 1970s. The study of about 270,000 women throughout the United States showed that women who had non-cancerous growths discovered in breast scans underwent surgeries that some doctors felt were unnecessary. Those findings led to guidelines pertaining to the age groups of women who would benefit most from regular mammograms.
Why It's Important
Breast cancer remains a leading cause of death among women, underscoring the need for mammograms among certain age groups, for early cancer detection. In many cases, mammography can detect tumors in smaller, more treatable stages, which leads to longer lives.
Health Care Impact
Saloman's innovation in the early 20th century continues to help save lives. The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center published a study in 2005 concluding that women whose breast cancer was revealed through mammography had much higher survival rates than those who found their cancer another way, such as physically noticing a breast lump. Researchers attributed the higher survival rate to early detection of cancer at less lethal stages.
Tags: breast cancer, breast cancer, breast tissue, early detection, German researcher, German surgeon, higher survival
