CENTRALIA - A little-known procedure could save the lives of thousands of women.

It's a radioactive test for breast cancer to find the danger when a mammogram can't.

Providence Centralia Hospital is one of the few in the nation to provide this life-saving screening, and it's the only one in the state.

The test uses a radioactive liquid to course through the patient's body looking for cancerous cells in the breast.

"Right now, I'm just very concerned. I want to find out," said breast cancer screening patient Barbara Hardy.

If there's cancer, it'll show up on the screen as black spot.
 
The imaging department at Providence Centralia has been offering this new screening program since early 2005. It is also known as BSGI -- breast specific gamma imaging. The screening device is from Dilon Technologies.

This radioactive imaging doesn't take the place of a mammogram. The mammogram is still considered the main test. But that can miss about 20% of the breast cancers. The BSGI doesn't miss at all.

"A little over a year ago, I discovered a lump in my self breast exam," says patient Tonja Nichols.

She had a mammogram and ultrasound but both found nothing. She went through radioactive imaging and it proved there really was nothing there.

"And it was a huge relief because I was negative," she said.

And for those where cancer is found, surgery can remove it by catching it early.

"I give it all the credit in the world," breast cancer patient Ines Fusco said. "It saved my life."

But it's still a relative new procedure and only for those who have indications something is wrong that didn't show up in the mammogram.

Why Centralia?

"I think we were just lucky in talking to the right people and having management here that was very proactive and found this was going to be very useful to our patients," radiological technician Kara Dodd said.

And now patients from as far away as Seattle and Portland are coming to get the breast cancer test.

The radioactive imaging test is available at only 33 places across the nation.

For More Information:

www.providence.org
www.dilon.com