By Denise Mann
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, March 14, 2023 (HealthDay Information) — Newer scanning expertise might spot extra breast cancers and decrease the speed of dreaded false positives, a big, new examine reveals.
Now accessible in a rising variety of well being care amenities, tomosynthesis makes use of low-dose X-rays and pc reconstructions to create 3D pictures of the breasts to seek out cancers. In distinction, conventional mammography creates 2D pictures of the breasts.
“Tomosynthesis is changing into the usual of care, and insurance coverage sometimes covers it,” mentioned examine writer Dr. Emily Conant, chief within the division of breast imaging on the Hospital of the College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. “Hunt down locations that do provide this expertise.”
The brand new examine included information on greater than 1 million girls aged 40 to 79 who had been screened with both 3D or 2D digital mammography between January 2014 and December 2020 at 5 massive well being care techniques in the USA. Most girls had a minimum of two screening exams throughout the examine interval, for a complete of near 2.5 million screening exams.
Tomosynthesis caught 5.3 breast cancers for each 1,000 girls screened, in comparison with 4.5 per 1,000 girls screened with 2D digital mammography. What’s extra, there was a decrease fee of false positives and remembers for added imaging with tomosynthesis.
False positives happen when you’re advised you want follow-up testing, however no breast most cancers is discovered. This could trigger super anxiousness, and there are elevated prices and dangers related to the extra testing.
“With tomosynthesis, an X-ray beam takes a number of low-dose pictures in an arc over your head, and the pc reconstructs the breast so I can really scroll by means of layers of your breast tissue,” Conant mentioned. “I can undergo the tissue layer by layer to see if it’s a actual lesion or not.”
Whereas the 3D expertise is healthier at screening dense breasts for most cancers than conventional 2D mammograms are, it doesn’t absolutely clear up this concern, she famous.
“Actually dense breasts appear like a blizzard in some pictures, and due to the whiteness, you may’t discover lesions,” she defined. “It is more durable to see cancers as a result of they’re masked by white glandular tissue.”
Ultrasounds or breast MRI after both kind of mammogram will nonetheless be wanted to display screen actually dense breasts for most cancers, she mentioned.
The examine was printed on-line March 14 within the journal Radiology.
Breast most cancers consultants are enthusiastic in regards to the 3D breast most cancers screening expertise.
“Tomosynthesis is extra detailed and superior than conventional mammography,” mentioned Dr. Katherina Sawicki Calvillo, a breast surgeon and founding father of New England Breast and Wellness in Wellesley, Mass.
The draw back is that there’s extra radiation publicity. Nonetheless, “the advantages of higher most cancers detection outweigh this threat,” she mentioned. “If a affected person has been advised they’ve dense breast tissue, they need to hunt down a middle that gives tomosynthesis.”
Dr. Marisa Weiss, chief medical officer and founding father of Breastcancer.org, agreed.
“For ladies at an elevated threat of breast most cancers, the digital breast tomosynthesis kind of mammography represents a vital choice that’s value pushing for as a result of it does a greater job of letting sooner and extra precisely if there’s something worrisome or if the coast is evident,” Weiss mentioned.
Extra info
The Radiological Society of North America and the American Faculty of Radiology have extra on tomosynthesis.
SOURCES: Emily Conant, MD, professor, radiology, chief, division of breast imaging, Hospital of the College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Katherina Zabicki Calvillo, MD, founder, New England Breast and Wellness, Wellesley, Mass.; Marisa Weiss, MD, chief medical officer, founder, Breastcancer.org, Ardmore, Pa.; Radiology, March 14, 2023, on-line
