Which modalities
will ultimately prove
best at imaging
the breast?
by Keith Loria
Note: This report originally appeared in the July 2008 edition of DOTmed Business News. A list of registered users that provide sales & service can be found at the end.
Mammography appears to be on the radar screen of every imaging modality today. While the traditional mammogram has helped lower breast cancer deaths by as much as 30 percent over the last two decades, as many as one in five cancers, nevertheless, are still overlooked. That is why all the other major imaging modalities are aggressively being assessed - both for their diagnostic and therapy-management capabilities.
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"I think an important message is that we've really evolved tremendously from the old mammography that really started only 25 years ago. Today we're using a whole compendium of different modalities that allow us to improve the detection of breast cancers and find them earlier and manage patients better," says Dr. Ellen De Paredes, chair of the ACR Breast Imaging Communication Committee. "A lot of these other modalities are really aimed at trying to help manage the treatment and decide what's the best surgery for patients. Is breast conservation the best thing, or are there other diseases, which means some other surgery would be better? We've really advanced a lot in the field of breast imaging, which I think is an exciting thing and it's helped educate the public."
This comparative of a
normal digital mammogram(l.)
and a normal mammogram
on X-ray film (r.)is
courtesy of Magee-Women's
Hospital of UPMC
According to Jim McGinty, President of Digitec Medical, a sales and service organization focusing on breast imaging equipment, there are a lot of exciting things going on in breast imaging in the first decade of the 21st century. "There is breast MRI and three dimensional imaging methods coming out with
enhanced imaging," he says. "They all hope to improve image quality and reduce patient dose. Then there are improvements in CAD where a computer looks at images and suggests where doctors should look."
Every modality - from film and digital mammo, to MRI, CT, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine - has its advocates. Ask five different radiologists which is best, and you're likely to get five different opinions as to where imaging is headed in the future.
