Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Mar 19/99) - Area women no longer have to travel to Yellowknife to get screened for breast cancer now that the Inuvik Regional Hospital has a functioning mammography machine of its own.

The first screening took place March 9 and several more women have gone through the 45-minute activity since then.

NWT breast cancer screening guidelines recommend all women between the age of 50 and 69 get regular mammography screenings.

Screenings are also for those aged 40 to 49 who are considered high risk for developing breast cancer because of aspects such as a family history. It's also for those who insist on starting a screening program in that age group.

Guidelines say women younger than 40 usually do not need to be screened and those aged 70 years and older should be screened only as long as they remain in good health.

"We take two pictures of each breast -- one on each side," says Marion MacInnis who is the chief technologist in Inuvik's radiology department.

"Say we didn't think we got all the tissue and we wanted to take one little area then we would take a photo of just that area. So if people get extra views it doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong, just that we want a better picture of what's there."

She then walks around the state-of-the-art Senographe 800T mammography machine and explains how the radiation level is much less than what patients get from a visit to the dentist.

Patients are booked 45 minutes apart though the exam itself only takes about 15 minutes. But part of the procedure is developing films through a processor which are then studied by a radiologist.

When a radiologist in Inuvik studies the high contrast negative X-rays it is to make sure she has got all the tissue that she needs for a reading to be made on them.

The final detailed analysis of the photos will not take place in Inuvik but by those with extensive training and experience in Edmonton.

"You always ask patients if they have had any problems," MacInnis says.

"If they have had a cyst on their breast removed it might have left a little scar. So that's important for the radiologist who's reading the film to know that -- so he doesn't think there's something new going on."

She equates this with a common procedure used for chest X-rays for those with bronchitis. Doctors are given both recent (diseased) and older (healthy) visuals of the patient's chest.

"If you've never had a mammogram before then there's nothing else to look at, but if you've had X-rays from Yellowknife, we'll be borrowing the films from there to (send to Edmonton and) compare."

Though frequency of follow-up examinations will be based on results from previous screenings, follow-up screening is normally recommended every two years in all women older than 50.

Women in the 40 through 49 age group, once entered into the program, will be encouraged to have yearly screenings.

MacInnis stresses mammography is only one part of the triad of women's health programs: pap tests and breast self-examinations make up the other necessary components.