Tech aids detection

Tech improves

breast cancer detection

Area health care providers have found ways to make breast screenings more accessible and more thorough.

"The whole reason for screening is to catch it at an early time," said Deborah Travis, Cherokee Nation Chief Director of Radiology.

Travis said six Cherokee Nation facilities, including the Three Rivers Health Center at 1001 S. 41st St. E., offer mammograms. "There are many women, who, if we didn't offer this service, they couldn't travel," Travis said. "They don't have the resources to travel and get their mammogram done and we might miss their breast cancer if they have symptoms."

Native people with a CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) card can get a mammogram upon referral from their physician, Travis said.

Three Rivers Technologist Michelle Ford said the health center uses a digital GE Senographe Pristina for mammograms. "The first image is an up and down view of the breast tissue," Ford said. "We want to make sure we have all the tissue from the breast in the image. Then we turn the machine."

Travis said Three Rivers plans to bring 3-D imaging to the health center.

Wagoner Community Hospital has offered 3-D mammograms since 2019. Radiology Director Donielle Burggraf said the technology makes a difference. "It takes a longer scan rather than just individual images, and it pulls the exact image from multiples," Burggraf said. "It's a full scan around and more detailed image than you get from a plain one view."

Doctors and radiologists get a clearer image than what a 2-D scan provided, she said.

Patients do not need a doctor's order to schedule a screening, she said. "You're just able to call and get it on the schedule," she said. "Every woman is entitled to it, age 40 and above."

Mammogram results are sent to the patient and to the patient's primary care physician, she said.

Burggraf said women over 40 should get mammograms once a year. That way, doctors and radiologists can compare new images with previous ones and trace any changes. "That's usually an early clue into things, so if you get it done once a year, you can catch things before it becomes a real issue," she said.

Saint Francis Hospital Muskogee recently acquired a stereotactic breast biopsy unit at its breast health center, 101 Rockefeller Drive.

Dr. Jonathon Kirkland, D.O., a radiologist at

three Rivers Health Center technologist Michelle Ford can adjust the GE Senographe Pristina mammogram machine

to get various angles of the breast. (Cathy Spaulding)

Saint Francis, said the machine is used for biopsies of micro-calcifications, "which are often early signs of breast cancer."

Micro-calcifications can be seen even before a mass is seen, he said. "Some cancers don't even produce a mass that can be seen on mammograms or ultrasound," Kirkland said. "It really helps guide you to catching these women before they get to where they couldn't get treatment."

The unit has been in Muskogee for about two months.

"We can catch cancers early and biopsy them in a minimally invasive way, as opposed to having to take a patient for a big surgery," Kirkland said. "We can get them an answer and really guide their treatment after that point. So it's really exciting stuff."

The breast health center is a one-stop center, offering mammograms, whole-breast ultrasound and MRI, according to a previous Phoenix article.

People can go online to schedule mammograms at Saint Francis Hospital Muskogee.