Intermountain radiologists asking women to schedule mammograms around their COVID-19 vaccinations

One of the largest providers in the Western United States is telling patients to schedule their annual mammograms around receiving COVID-19 vaccinations to avoid being misdiagnosed with breast cancer due to vaccine side effects.

Intermountain Healthcare recently followed other health groups around the country with their new guidance, now encouraging women to either get their breast screening exam before being vaccinated or wait at least one month after their final dose.

The new policy is based on the nearly 11% of patients who show swollen lymph nodes on their scan after receiving the initial dose of vaccine, and 16% after the second. Such findings would typically indicate metastatic cancer and require a biopsy, Brett Parkinson, MD, medical director of Intermountain’s Breast Care Center, told the Desert News on Tuesday.

“Ordinarily, we don’t see enlarged lymph nodes on a mammogram or other imaging study unless there is severe pathology, either from an inflammation or malignancy,” Parkinson told the news outlet. “We started to look at this and we realized if we don’t do something, we’re going to have a lot of patients needlessly coming back,” he told reporters later.

These revisits are also costly and cause additional exposure to potential coronavirus for patients and medical staff.

Here's how Penn Medicine providers suggest handling these findings.

Read more from Desert News below.