Breast scan in slim women

According to a new study carried out in the UK, scanning breast cancer is less effective in slim women.

According to a new study published in the British Medical Journal, scanning is less effective in slim women.

The study also revealed that undergoing Hormone Replacement Therapy or a surgery previously, which is not connected with cancer, also makes chances of detecting tumours through scanning bleak.

The Cancer Research UK's "million women study" revealed the three risk factors after monitoring over 122,000 women aged between 50 to 64 years.

The factors that had an adverse effect on diagnosing breast cancer were HRT, having had previous breast surgery and having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or less.

"While these findings suggest that mammography may be more efficient in some women than others, it remains the best way of detecting breast cancer when it is still at an early stage. These results highlight how important it is that, as well as attending routine screening, women remain breast-aware between the three yearly NHS screening intervals," study co-author Dr Gillian Reeves, from Cancer Research UK's Epidemiology Unit in Oxford,was quoted as saying.