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For Immediate Release
July 28, 2006
Leading Japanese Radiologist Visits Mercy Women’s
Center
Oklahoma City— Because Mercy Women’s Center
is one of the busiest breast-dedicated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
sites in the country, a leading breast radiologist from Japan will visit
Mercy today. Hiroko Kawashima, M.D., will arrive in Oklahoma City and
learn firsthand how Mercy uses breast MRI, observe biopsy cases and get
a tour of the facility.
And while a Japanese woman’s lifetime risk of breast
cancer is one in 22—compared to one in eight for an American woman—the
risk in Japan is rising rapidly. Asia is experiencing a high incidence
of breast cancer, oftentimes showing up in Asian women 10 years earlier
than western women.
“In Japan, they are finding breast cancer in very
young women and because oftentimes young women have denser breasts, it’s
very difficult to see cancer with mammography,” said Dr. Rebecca Stough,
director of imaging at Mercy Women’s Center, who recently returned from
the 14th National Breast Cancer Conference in Tokyo where she was one of
the keynote speakers. “Japan has an increasing interest in breast MRI
because it sees what mammography can’t.”
In January 2002, Dr. Stough launched the first
comprehensive breast MRI program in Oklahoma. Since then, Dr. Stough has
reviewed breast MRIs of more than 4,000 patients at high risk for breast
cancer, with diagnostic problems or newly discovered breast cancers.
“Although breast MRI is the most sensitive imaging
tool available for detection of breast cancer, this new technology is
not self-interpreting,” said Dr. Alan Hollingsworth, medical director of
Mercy Women’s Center and Mercy Cancer Program. “It’s extremely important
to have a dedicated radiologist such as Dr. Stough with experience in
both MRI and mammography since MRI is a much greater challenge than
other types of breast imaging.”
With breast MRI technology, hundreds of images are
taken of the breast without any radiation exposure, allowing a
radiologist to “travel” by computer through the tissue in order to
identify and biopsy breast abnormalities.
“We can discover a tiny, subtle abnormality on a
mammogram and then perform a breast MRI and discover far more extensive
cancer than you expected or can see on the mammogram or ultrasound,”
said Dr. Stough. “We are finding breast cancers that are invisible by
mammography and ultrasound.” . Dr. Kawashima, who received her medical
degree from the University of Kanazawa in Japan, also studied radiology
at the University of Chicago. She is currently a professor of radiology
at the University of Kanazawa, as well as an executive member of the
Japan Breast Cancer Congress,
Mercy Health Center, the only Magnet hospital in
Oklahoma and among only 3 percent of hospitals in the nation to be
awarded Magnet status, is a member of Mercy Health System of Oklahoma
and the Sisters of Mercy Health System. Magnet-designated facilities:
report higher patient satisfaction rates, deliver better patient
outcomes, provide more nursing care at the bedside of patients and
consistently outperform non-magnet organizations.
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