The Regional Nucleus of the Center of the Portuguese League Against Cancer (LPCC-NRC) inaugurates on March 28, Thursday, at 10:30 am, at the Dr. Arnaldo Sampaio Health Center, in Leiria, the First Mobile Mammography Unit in Direct Digital Imaging System.
With the aim of early detection of breast cancer with state-of-the-art digital mammography equipment, this new means corresponds to an investment by the LPCC of over 250 thousand euros, co-financed by the Directorate-General for Health.
The new Mobile Mammography Unit represents a technological innovation that evolved from the analog system to the indirect digital system and which has now culminated in the system with the use of direct digital imaging. This new system places the Screening Program at the forefront of digital imaging, a crucial factor in the early diagnosis of breast cancer.
Breast cancer is a public health problem that, despite not being the most lethal, has a high incidence and mortality, especially in women. Currently in Portugal, with a female population of about 5,5 million, 4.500 new cases of breast cancer appear every year, that is, 12 new cases a day, with four women dying a day from this disease.
Clinical examination and mammography are means for early diagnosis
In the activities related to the prevention of breast cancer, the Breast Cancer Screening, initiated in the Center Region of the country in 1990, stands out, which has allowed the diagnosis of thousands of cancers at an early stage and, consequently, curable or controllable.
The Breast Cancer Screening is intended for an early diagnosis, discovering very small tumors, often not palpable and only seen on mammography or ultrasound or in a non-invasive evolutionary phase, thus allowing less invasive and less traumatizing treatments and a disease-free survival and longer overall.
The Breast Cancer Screening Program (developed in close collaboration with Primary Health Care) currently covers the entire Center Region of the country (77 municipalities), as well as the districts of Beja, Bragança, Évora, Portalegre, Santarém, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real and municipalities in the districts of Braga, Porto, Lisbon and Setúbal.
It mainly uses mobile units that move every two years to municipalities and fixed units. Invitation letters are sent to women of traceable age (45-69 years) registered in the Health Units to undergo a mammogram (free of charge exam).
Author Concerted Ideas
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