A study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology last year found that if 1,000 women were to be screened with digital mammography, three would be found to have cancer, but if they were screened with digital mammography and MBI, that would rise to almost 12 women.

But the industry has not been able to fully solve the dense breast issue yet. It’s known that mammography is not always the best screening tool for women with dense breasts, but it’s not yet known which modality should be used for supplemental screening.


The Adjunct Screening with Tomosynthesis or Ultrasound in Mammography-negative Dense breasts (ASTOUND) trial found that ultrasound and tomosynthesis are good options. However, even though ultrasound is able to detect more cancers than tomosynthesis, it’s time-consuming and often conducted by less-experienced staff members who may return false positives.

Rafferty believes that tomosynthesis will eventually become the standard of care. "With better cancer detection and fewer false alarms, providing access anywhere mammography is currently performed, there is no reason that it should not become our new standard of care," she said.

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