Screening mammography is a routine procedure used to examine women who have no evidence of breast cancer. It consists of two views of each breast taken at an angle to each other. Diagnostic mammography is used to examine a specific area of the breast when an abnormality, such as a lump, has been found.
Diagnostic mammography includes special views and additional angles.
Screening Mammography Mammography can typically spot lesions one-fifth the size of those that can be felt by hand during self examination or clinical breast examination by a healthcare professional. For example, an experienced examiner can feel a lump the size of a small grape. Mammography can find a lump the size of a grain of rice. Mammography can miss some breast changes, most often in younger premenopausal women with dense breast tissue. These may lead to biopsies that turn out to be negative or benign, and therefore, in hindsight, unnecessary.