Mammography

Screening mammography is an X-ray exam of the breasts to detect breast lumps when they're too small to be detected by physical examination. These small lumps can indicate early-stage breast cancer. Because size of the cancer at diagnosis is one of the most important predictors of outcome, screening mammography can lead to finding and treating breast cancer in its earliest and most curable stage -- nearly one to three years before you might actually feel the lump in your breast.