New lower-radiation CT scan superior to mammograms at detecting breast cancer

[Lani]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new breast scan using a souped-up kind of X-ray called a CT scan may be more accurate than a standard mammogram -- and much less uncomfortable, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

The new scan produces three-dimensional pictures, which are better at showing whether a spot on the X-ray is a benign lesion or a tumor, the researchers at the University of Rochester in New York said.

It can also provide pictures of tissue around the ribs and outer breast toward the armpit, where 50 percent of cancers are found, the researchers told a Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago.
The Cone Beam Breast Computed Tomography scanner takes 360-degree views of breast anatomy, with no need to compress the breast between cold glass plates.

"We have one case in which a cancer shows up phenomenally well using this new imaging system, whereas when you look at the same lesion on a mammogram it is hard to detect," said Dr. Avice O'Connell, director of women's imaging at the university's Medical Center, who led the study.

O'Connell's team is still doing trials of the system and will not have a full study until 60 women have undergone the imaging.

But the results so far suggest the CT scan can detect more of a tumor than a mammogram can, O'Connell said. So far the Cone Beam scanner has detected every tumor seen on a mammogram, she said.

"The mammogram is not 100 percent. It never was," O'Connell said in a telephone interview. "Mammograms in the best hands in the world will miss 15 percent of tumors." Continued...