Directly impacting the community

For more than 20 years, the James Graham Brown Cancer Center’s mobile mammography unit has been removing access barriers by reaching women in their community, church, school, or place of business, providing screening mammography and saving lives.

All mammograms performed on the mobile unit are screening mammograms – the most common way to detect an early stage breast cancer. When breast cancer is caught early, treatment is less invasive with improved survival rates. In 2011 the James Graham Brown Cancer Center’s mobile mammography unit performed 4,629 screening mammograms. Of those screened, 34 patients were found to have a breast malignancy.

The Mobile Mammography Unit uses digital computer aided-detection (CAD) to enhance the digital mammography image and flag abnormalities in the breast, assisting the radiologist in detecting early breast cancer.  This is the same advanced technology offered at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center’s Breast Care Center, the first center in Kentucky to receive accreditation from National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers.

In fact, the Brown Cancer Center’s unit was among the first in the country to offer digital imaging. Patients benefit by reduced exposure times, improved imaging, and a more comfortable exam.

To make your experience more comfortable, our specially trained mammography technologist will use a comfort pad, a cushion pad that is placed on the mammography equipment.

Yearly mammograms are covered by Medicare and most insurance companies for women older than 40.  Special discounts are available to those without health insurance.

Guidelines

To qualify for a screening mammogram, a woman must:

• Be 40 years of age or older
• Not have a previous history of breast cancer, breast surgery in the last 24  months, breast implants or active breast problems
• One year has passed since the last mammogram
• Be an established patient with a medical provider and provide the  name, address and phone number of that provider

Click here to view a schedule of upcoming screenings for the mobile mammogram program