5. Mammography equipment

Developed in the 1950s-1960s, notably in Strasbourg by Pr. Gros, mammography is designed to detect and diagnose breast cancer. According to published statistics, 178,480 breast cancers were detected in the United States in 2007 (representing 25% of all cancers in women), resulting in 40,460 deaths. The cumulative risk of breast cancer in a woman before the age of 75 is estimated at 11.5% (but only 2.4% before the age of 50, and very low before the age of 45), and if the cancer is diagnosed early enough, the survival rate is considered to be 85% at 5 years, since there is a clear correlation between the size of the tumour at the time of discovery and the chances of survival.

Breasts are classified according to their density, graded from 1 to 4. Density 1 corresponds to very "adipose" breasts (>75% fat), density 3 and 4 to very "dense" breasts (fibro-glandular...