3D mammogram machines are among the latest in breast cancer technology. While it may look like a Xerox machine, it is the latest in ultrasound technology that is making the detection of breast cancer easier. Doctors say it make diagnosing easier.
“I have very fibrous breasts,” said a women, who has a family history of breast cancer. “They’re dense, and there’s a lot of stuff there that can interfere with the analysis of the mammogram.” She has a very personal connection with breast cancer. “My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999,” she said. “She’s cancer-free now.”Because of that, she stays on top of detecting it.
The 3D ultrasound detected a cyst, which doctors concluded was not cancerous. An ultrasound mammogram may not have delivered that news with certainty.
“We can look at those images on a workstation and manipulate them, turn them back and forth, up and down, from side to side, look at the images in 3D — and allow us to do a very wonderful screening,” said the radiologist .
In the past, these breast scans could only show a very flat image of the breast tissue. But the new 3D ultrasound technology shows 500 different views. Doctors are careful to emphasize the technology doesn’t take the place of the mammogram, but it supplements the screening. She says she’s grateful for these advancements and is hoping one day — for a cure.
“Not only do we have the tools for the detection, but if you detect early enough, you can treat this, don’t die from breast cancer,” she said.
Screening women with both ultrasounds and mammograms allows doctors to find more breast cancers than if they rely on mammograms alone, a new study shows. However, the combination also leads to many more unnecessary biopsies, and experts don’t recommend it to most patients.
Researchers involved in a study of more than 2,600 women in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association focused on women at high risk, such as those who have had previous breast tumors. In such women, mammograms found cancer in eight out of 1,000 women screened. Adding an ultrasound let doctors find cancer in 12 out of 1,000, said the study, which was financed by the Avon Foundation and the National Cancer Institute. Together, the tests found 78% of cancers.
In addition to finding real breast tumors, ultrasounds also pick up many more suspicious spots that are later found to be benign, says radiologist Wendie Berg, the new study’s main author. In fact, more than 90% of suspicious ultrasound findings in the study proved harmless.
That can cause women to have needless anxiety and unnecessary biopsies.
Because of the risk and expense of additional tests, most women don’t need breast ultrasounds. The American Cancer Society’s recommends women begin getting annual mammograms and breast exams at age 40.
Mammograms and ultrasounds cost less than $90 each, but MRIs cost about $1,000, as a spokesman for the American College of Radiology Imaging Network says. A radiologist would need more than an hour to complete three breast ultrasounds but could read 50 mammograms in that time.
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