Pain-Free Mammogram

Reported September 2007

Boston, Mass. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- One out of seven women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Up until now, a mammogram has been the best hope for early detection. But mammograms can be uncomfortable and difficult to read. Now, new technology may change all that.

For most women, the prospect of getting a mammogram is scary.

"I think for many radiologists, the prospect of interpreting mammography is a very scary thing," Elizabeth Rafferty, M.D., radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, says.

That's because 50-percent of women have dense breast tissue and on a mammogram, that density looks similar to cancer.

"It's really like a 'Where's Waldo.' I'm trying to find the thing I'm interested in, but it looks like everything else in the sea of normal structures," Dr. Rafferty says.

But a new technology called tomosynthesis is helping radiologists pinpoint cancer as small as two millimeters. Tomosynthesis builds on digital mammography by taking multiple images. An x-ray tube moves in an arch around the breast at different angles. A computer then combines the information into a 3-D image.

"The radiologists can look at it like pages of a book, looking at one area of the breast in isolation," Dr. Rafferty says.

Traditional mammograms only take two angles of the breast. Depending on breast size, tomosynthesis takes at least 11 different angles. Another bonus -- tomosynthesis uses less compression than traditional mammograms and that means less pain for the patient. Doctors are awaiting FDA approval. The cost of the test is expected to be about the same as a traditional mammogram.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the Optical Society of America contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Jennifer Gundersen
Public Information Officer
(617) 724-6433
jgundersen1@partners.org

Martha Heil
American Institute of Physics
for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine
(301) 209-3088
mheil@aip.org

Optical Society of America
Washington, DC 20036-1023
(202) 223-8130
http://www.osa.org
info@osa.org

We're in the heart of hurricane season and we may be able to predict the next one before it hits!

After yet another summer of scorching temps around the world, global warming is a hot issue once again. We'll show you how you could be impacted.

Predicting a wildfire…before it happens? It's not a bunch of smoke. We'll show you a high-tech way scientists are staying ahead of the flames.

You could leave the hospital sicker than when you came. Keep yourself safe from a deadly infection plaguing our nation's hospitals.

Athletes beware! We'll show you how to protect yourself from a deadly infection growing in locker rooms and on gym equipment.

There's a war raging in your backyard and you don't even know it! How plants fight off enemies without lifting a leaf.

A new device could take the squeeze out of a woman's least-favorite annual appointment.

A throbbing head -- crying babies. The most common childhood infection could see its last days thanks to a new vaccine.

Taking a look inside your brain … without surgery! We'll show you how GPS technology goes from the road to your head.

Scientists are getting closer to figuring out what cause them and how to destroy them.

Heart monitoring just got more high-tech. Skip your next heart check-up, thanks to new, wireless technology.

Want to go back to your family's summer trip? We'll show you how you can step into your favorite photos with new 3-D digital photo technology.