

Xeni Jardin Tweets Breast-Cancer Diagnosis - molecule
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2011/12/02/143072567/xeni-jardin-tells-twitter-fans-she-has-breast-cancer

======
Anechoic
I've known that women often complain about how uncomfortable mammograms are,
but looking at the picture of the machine Xeni tweeted made me realize for the
first time how medieval the procedure actually is. I've seen pics of women
going through the mammograms, but it's always been from behind-the-shoulder.
This link has a NSFW pic of the procedure for those (like me) who didn't
actually know how the procedure went:
[http://cancer.osu.edu/patientsandvisitors/cancerinfo/cancert...](http://cancer.osu.edu/patientsandvisitors/cancerinfo/cancertypes/breast/about/pregnancy/pages/index.aspx)

There's got to be a better way, I can see why some women might be reluctant to
have one.

Stay strong Xeni.

~~~
Sukotto

      There's got to be a better way
    

According to this TED talk from Dec 2010, there is:
<http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_rhodes.html>

    
    
      Deborah Rhodes: A tool that finds 3x more breast tumors,
      and why it's not available to you
      
      Working with a team of physicists, Dr. Deborah Rhodes
      developed a new tool for tumor detection that's 3 times 
      as effective as traditional mammograms for women with
      dense breast tissue. The life-saving implications are
      stunning. So why haven't we heard of it? Rhodes shares 
      the story behind the tool's creation, and the web of
      politics and economics that keep it from mainstream use.

~~~
runningdogx
(tl;dw for the video: it's about the dramatically improved detection of breast
cancer particularly in dense breast tissue (where mammographies often fail to
visibly differentiate tumors) by injecting a radiotracer and using small gamma
detectors that can fit closely around the breast.)

There's also breast thermography.

[http://www.iact-org.org/patients/breastthermography/what-
is-...](http://www.iact-org.org/patients/breastthermography/what-is-breast-
therm.html)

And another technique I couldn't find a description of but I read about a
while ago, where the breast temperature is altered first. Since tumors have
greater blood supply, it makes breast thermography (or something like it... I
forget the exact detection method) even more accurate in detecting cancer,
since a tumor with greater blood supply will return to normal temperature
faster than the surrounding tissue.

~~~
Karellen
Breast thermography appears to be mostly quackery

[http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/dr-
christiane-...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/dr-christiane-
northrup-and-breast-thermography-the-opportunistic-promotion-of-quackery/)

------
michaelschade
For those interested in seeing all of her tweets, I've put them up on Storify
here to make them easier to read through in order:
<http://storify.com/michaelschade/myfirstmammo-at-xeni>

~~~
acangiano
It's really sad to see the "game" and funny tweets suddenly transform into the
somber, "I have breast cancer". I sincerely hope she'll beat it.

Wikipedia has interesting details in regards to the controversy surrounding
mammograms: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammography>

