can mammograms cause cancer cells to form in breast?

[tnmommie]

can mammograms cause cancer cells to form in breast?

[lilygateau]

Your doctor, insurance company, and Rosie O'Donnell urge you to get them once a year. The idea is to detect and cure cancer BEFORE it starts not cause it.

[Tarkarri]

Maybe!We still don't know all the causes of cancer, so nothing can be positively ruled out.However, they are considered safe, and they are a good way of detecting suspicious growth in breast tissue of women over 40.So, if you are over 40, I would recommend having a mammogram done.

[Lissacal]

It is probable, but not likely."The US Department of Energy estimates that the glandular-tissue dose per mammogram image is 138 mrem, or approximately 1.4 mSv......The American Cancer Society reports that the average risk of developing cancer is about one in three for females during their lifetimes, or 38.18%. Adding the additional 0.24 cancers due to 0.4 mSv to the natural risk of 3,818 cancers in 10,000 would correspond to an increase of 0.006% increase in the natural cancer incidence rate, which is really an inconsequential increase."Each breast receives two views on a routine mammogram. So each breast receives about 0.8 mSv.http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q4720.html"The effective radiation dose from a mammogram is about 0.7 mSv, which is about the same as the average person receives from background radiation in three months. Federal mammography guidelines require that each unit be checked by a medical physicist every year to ensure that the unit operates correctly."http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=mammo&bhcp=1The benefit of having a mammogram and finding an early, treatable breast cancer far outweighs the risk, in my opinion.EDIT: as a rebuttal to Kelly.....Mammograms are not money makers. In the facility where I work in Northern California, we lose money each time we do a mammogram. We don't even cut even. The insurance reimbursement is nothing. There are so many rules and regulations regarding physist reports, annual inspections, quality control etc etc etc, that it costs us to do the exams. Nobody will ever get rich doing mammograms.......

[bama2]

never heard of it ...but hey anything can happen ...