The Rush Approach to Breast Imaging Services
Whether it's your first mammogram or your tenth, breast cancer screening can be stressful. That's why breast imaging specialists partner with you to determine the best breast diagnostic imaging options for your needs, health history and preferences.
While mammography remains the gold standard for breast cancer screening, your screening plan may include any of the following advanced screening options to best detect breast cancer:
- Digital mammography (2D mammogram)
- Tomosynthesis (3D mammogram)
- Automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) screening for women who have dense breasts
- Diagnostic ultrasound
- Breast MRI — including fast MRI, which can be done in about 10 minutes — for women who have a high risk of breast cancer
Personalized breast screening services
When you come to Rush for breast imaging services, our breast imaging specialists will begin by assessing your risk of breast cancer, based on your personal and family history. We'll also determine your breast density. We'll evaluate all of these factors to then create your personalized breast screening plan.
Your breast cancer risk assessment includes an ongoing plan for annual or semi-annual screening and follow-up. If your assessment shows that you have a high risk for breast cancer, we'll connect you with a nurse navigator who will explain your plan and walk you through every step, which may include supplemental screening exams such as ABUS or fast breast MRI. We'll also refer you to our high-risk clinic for ongoing management and care by providers who specialize in providing care for guidance to women who have a high risk of breast cancer.
Personalized Breast Cancer Screening at Rush
Meet our breast imaging providers
Excellence in Breast Imaging Services
- Finding breast cancer early: Of all breast cancers detected at Rush breast imaging centers, 85% to 90% are found at the earliest stages — when it is most treatable.
- Center of excellence: Rush breast imaging centers in and around Chicago are designated as Breast Imaging Centers of Excellence by the American College of Radiology.
- A leader in breast screening for dense breasts: If you have dense breast tissue, you know that you have a higher risk for breast cancer — and that its harder to detect breast cancer in dense breasts. All Rush breast imaging centers offer automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) screening to women who have dense breast tissue. ABUS provides a three-dimensional reconstructed image of your entire breast, which allows our diagnostic radiologists to easily see through dense tissue, which can often hide small breast cancers on a digital mammogram alone. Adding ABUS to your annual breast cancer screening increases your doctors' ability to find small, invasive breast cancers when they are most curable.
- A highly experienced team: Anyone who reads your mammogram at Rush specializes solely in breast imaging. This highly specialized team is one of the most experienced in the Chicago area — which means you can feel confident in the accuracy of your mammogram results.
- Collaborative care: Our breast imaging team works closely with the breast cancer team at Rush — which includes medical oncologists, breast surgeons, advanced practice providers and others — to create personalized care plans for patients.
U.S. News & World Report ranked Rush University Medical Center among the best in the nation for cancer care.
