Breast tomosynthesis holds promise for early breast cancer detection

In the U.S., one out of eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. The earlier the breast cancer is found, the more likely a woman will live a normal life, said Stephen Rose, M.D., a breast radiologist at Memorial Hermann Memorial City.

“We're very excited about breast tomosynthesis because we can look at isolated areas of the breast in greater detail”

Since April, the Bobetta Lindig Breast Care Center at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center has been participating in a clinical trial of a new imaging technology called breast tomosynthesis. The trial will compare breast tomosynthesis in combination with conventional digital mammography. There is no additional cost for the tomosynthesis research study.

"Many women have dense breast tissue. On a conventional mammogram, it can look similar to cancer," said Dr. Rose, principal investigator for the Houston study. "Breast tomosynthesis allows us to see multiple slices of the breast, which improves our ability to see a malignancy that may be hidden by overlapping tissue."

Breast tomosynthesis is a three-dimensional (3-D) imaging technology that involves a small number of low dose images of a breast in a short (5 second) scan. A powerful computer is then used to reconstruct the images into a series of thin high-resolution slices. Reconstructed tomosynthesis slices reduce or eliminate the problems caused by tissue overlap and structure noise in conventional two-dimensional (2-D) mammography. Breast tomosynthesis also offers a number of exciting opportunities, including improved diagnostic and screening accuracy, fewer recalls, greater radiologist confidence, and 3D lesion localization.

Dr. Rose predicts he'll see fewer false positive results with breast tomosynthesis. And because the images are clearer, he believes radiologists will have the capability to see smaller lesions than what can be seen on a conventional mammogram.

"We're very excited about breast tomosynthesis because we can look at isolated areas of the breast in greater detail," added Dr. Rose.

Breast tomosynthesis is available commercially in Europe and Canada but not yet approved for use in the United States. Hospitals including Memorial Hermann Memorial City are gathering data for FDA approval. The clinical trial is sponsored in part by Hologic, manufacturer of the breast tomosynthesis system used in the trial.