High-Tech Mammograms Will Change Breast Cancer Care

SUNDAY, Dec. 31 (HealthDay News) -- The mammogram is changing for the better.

New computer-driven technologies should make the yearly exam more accurate and easier on patients than ever before, experts say.

High-tech computer-based digital mammography is already available at about 10 percent of diagnostic centers in the country and growing steadily at a rate of about 4 percent a month, said Priscilla F. Butler, senior director of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Accreditation Programs.

While filmless mammography doesn't feel any different to women while they are being screened, doctors are discovering that there are benefits for particular patients.

A study of more than 40,000 women published last fall found that compared with standard mammograms, computer-based digital "pictures" were more beneficial for more than half the women.

The findings of that study, the American College of Radiology Imaging Network Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial, were that younger women with dense breast tissue, those under 50 and those who are premenopausal, would benefit most from digital mammograms. The range was so large that some doctors have since concluded that dense breast tissue inallgroups is better seen with the help of a computer.

"In other situations, it is probably no different [to film]," said Dr. Carl D'Orsi, co-chairman of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission and professor of radiology and director of the Breast Imaging Center at Emory University in Atlanta.

Other technologies are on the horizon.

In late November, researchers presenting at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting, in Chicago, created buzz by announcing data on a new technology called Cone Beam Breast Computed Tomography (CBBCT). According to experts, CBBCT promises to equal or surpass mammography in detecting breast cancer, and it does so without squeezing the breast in a vice.

The CBBCT scanner takes a number of pictures of the breast from various angles then merges them into one three-dimensional image. The system was developed by a professor at the University of Rochester, which holds several patents on the technology. The university licensed the technology to Koning Corp. to make, use and sell the scanners. The National Cancer Institute, along with private investors, helped fund the development of the scanner.

This pilot study used the CBBCT scanner to image 20 volunteers who had had normal mammograms, as well as a group of women who had had abnormalities detected during a physical exam or who had had suspicious mammograms. The goal of the study was simply to see how well the CBBCT could image the breast.

The CBBCT proved itself at least as good as conventional mammogram in imaging the breast, the study's authors concluded.