HALO Breast Pap Test Information Site

Everything you need to know about the HALO Breast Pap Test

Due to the Pap test, deaths from cervical cancer have dropped more than 70% over the past fifty years. But only modest progress has been made in reducing deaths from breast cancer. Like the cervical Pap test, the HALO system can detect abnormal cells years before a larger, potentially cancerous lesion might develop. This simple, noninvasive five minute test is the key to better outcomes through early detection.

 

Great Neck Obstetrics and Gynecology is one of the first practices in the Long Island, New York area to offer a the HALO Pap Test for the breast, which may identify breast cancer and disease years earlier than a lesion might be found on a mammogram or a self exam. Drawing on the record of one of the oldest and most successful models of health screening, the Cervical Pap Test, the Halo Breast Pap Test System from NeoMatrix is the first automatic, noninvasive test designed to detect abnormal cells in the breast.

 

 

Great Neck OBGYN, located in Great Neck, NY is delighted to offer the pap test for the breast, and is excited about the potential impact it can have by providing early warning signs of breast disease and better identifying high risk women. Many current breast cancer screening tools, such as a physical exam and mammography, are geared toward finding a lump as soon as possible; the HALO is the first device to allow the Ob-Gyn to conduct a screen in their office to identify who is at risk. It's a simple, noninvasive tool and can easily be incorporated into a typical visit.

 

 

95 percent of all breast cancer originates in the ductal system of the breasts. According to a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, benign breast disease, which can present as abnormal cells, is an important risk factor of breast cancer. The HALO Breast Pap Test is a noninvasive, five minute procedure that is designed to test for the presence of Nipple Aspirate Fluid (NAF). A large body of research demonstrates that testing for the presence of NAF and performing cytological assessment of any collected NAF, can be used to identify a woman's specific risk of breast cancer. For example, a woman with atypia (abnormal cytology) in NAF has a 4-5 times greater risk of developing breast cancer than women who do not produce fluid.

 

The HALO Breast Pap screening occurs in the OBGYN office using gentle suction like a breast pump to collect samples for laboratory analysis. Unlike current methods of breast cancer screening, which are capable of detecting tumors that have already developed, the HALO Breast Pap Test is designed to identify patients at risk before a lesion is detectable. This may be particularly useful in younger women who are not yet getting mammograms or are at an age when mammograms are not as sensitive.

 

In the National Cancer Institute's report, The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research 2006: Cancer Prevention, Early Detection and Prediction, the NCI expresses a need for more accurate methods of predicting who is at high risk for developing cancer. This is particularly important in breast cancer where more than 70 percent of women who develop cancer have no known risk factors other than age.

 

Dr. Sadaty of Great Neck OBGYN recommends that all women over the age of 25 have the HALO Breast Pap Test to evaluate their risk of breast disease. Whether the test is administered annually will be determined by the patient's history. The introduction of the HALO Breast Pap Test has been compared to the introduction of the Cervical Pap Test in the 1950s, which is widely credited with reducing cervical cancer death rates by more than 70% through the identification of abnormal cells in the cervix. Breast cancer develops in a similar manner to cervical cancer and progresses through identifiable cytological stages that can be detected in Nipple Aspirate Fluid. The developer of the Cervical Pap Test, Dr. George Papanicolaou, was also first to demonstrate that abnormal cells could be identified from NAF samples. While not all abnormal results lead to cancer, all breast cancers start as abnormal cells. Offering this test will give Dr. Sadaty the ability to identify women at risk who would otherwise remain undetected. The ability to identify women at risk and improve their management can have a profound impact on breast health.