From the July 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Other breast density measurement software includes Hologic’s Quanta breast density software and VolparaDensity from Volpara Solutions. While Volpara’s density measurement software works on all systems, the company entered into an agreement earlier this year with GE Healthcare to distribute VolparaDensity, which measures breast density from mammography and tomosynthesis images. The distribution agreement also includes VolparaAnalytics, which collects data from mammography and tomosynthesis systems and prepares reports, and Volpara-DoseRT, which measures the radiation dose administered to the patient.

Kristin Bravo, global marketing director for automated breast ultrasound at GE, says the VolparaDensity software provides an objective way to evaluate a mammogram and quickly see if there’s a need for supplemental screening with a product such as GE’s Invenia ABUS automated breast ultrasound system, which received FDA approval in June 2014. It’s possible for women to get a mammogram and supplemental screening in the same day, Bravo says. Clinicians have responded positively to GE’s partnership with Volpara. “We’re just starting to see customers who are ramping up and including it in clinical practice,” Bravo says.


Density as destiny?
Studies have consistently shown that having dense breasts increases a woman’s cancer risk. A study published in September 2014 in the journal Breast Cancer Research, which compared six density assessment methods, including Volpara, determined that fully automated measurement software provides valid alternatives to visual measurement with the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) and the semi-automated Cumulus for quantifying density in full-field digital mammography. The study also showed a strong connection between breast density and breast cancer risk.

However, according to a new study, published in May in Annals of Internal Medicine, not all women with dense breasts are at such a high risk for developing cancer and then having that cancer missed that they need additional screening. “Their overall message is consistent with where we believe we’re going to end up, which is that volumetric density is going to go into a full risk model and the results from that risk model will dictate screening intervals and be part of the decision on adjunctive imaging,” says Ralph Highnam, Volpara’s chief executive officer, in response to the Annals of Internal Medicine study.

New research has also found that contrast-enhanced MRI, which is already used as a supplemental screening tool in mammography for women at a high risk of developing cancer, can also help predict cancer risk. Researchers looked at normal background parenchymal enhancement (BPE), or when the background breast tissue shows up white, on the MRI images, as well as breast density. The study, published in the journal Radiology in May, found that the women with elevated amounts of BPE had a nine times higher chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer than the women with low amounts of BPE, or none at all. Breast density didn’t affect the cancer risk.

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