Breast Cancer Ribbon According to a latest study a technique of early detecting breast cancer may be to visit a high-quality one-stop breast clinic. Seemingly it was estimated that these clinics may have succeeded in accurately diagnosing almost all the women with breast cancer on their first visit itself.

It was found that in one-stop clinics women may have to go through physical breast examinations, biopsies and scans – all in one day. Unlike other hospitals where these tests are spaced out over a couple of days, such clinics apparently conduct them in a single day.

“Finding a lump or any other breast cancer symptom can be very worrying for a woman, so it’s crucial that she receives her results as quickly as possible and knows that the result is reliable,” says lead author, Dr. Peter Britton, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. “We think these clinics are so successful because women are seen by a team of experienced specialists and their results are discussed by all of the team.”

Unlike these clinics, the other clinics may not discuss the test results of women not having cancer. Therefore in those clinics there may be no debates over the diagnosis. This is believed to be the first time that the effectiveness of one-stop clinics may have been gauged. It was even noted that the precision of the obtained results seems to be quite encouraging.

“Research into ways to spot cancer early is crucial – especially for cancers such as breast cancer where treatment is much more likely to be successful when diagnosed early,” says Director of health information, Cancer Research UK, Sara Hiom. “This is the first indication that one-stop clinics could be the best way to help reduce waiting times and improve diagnosis.”

The study experts were believed to have assessed more than 7000 women who were evidently discharged from such clinics. These women were presumably not diagnosed with breast cancer. Also these women were believed to have been followed and kept an eye on for a period of about three years.

It was noted that around 29 patients were allegedly diagnosed with breast cancer in these three years. Out of these it was stated that about 9 cancers may have been overlooked by the clinic experts, while almost 60% of the tumors were stated to be “new” and not missed by the experts.

This study was published in the British Journal of Cancer.