Molecular Breast Imaging Finds Tiny Tumors

Molecular Breast Imaging uses a dual-head gamma camera that can detect tumors less than one-fifth of an inch in diameter, say U.S. researchers.

The diagnostic device that resembles a mammography unit can detect breast tumors less than 10 millimeters, or two-fifths of an inch, in diameter in 88 percent of cases where it is used.

Early findings from an ongoing comparison of the device with mammography show that it can detect small cancers that were not found with mammography, according to Mayo Clinic physicist Michael O’Connor.

The Mayo Clinic investigators say their device will likely be only slightly more expensive to use than mammography and will be much more comfortable for women because much less pressure is needed to image a breast.

We hope that our studies will eventually show our device to be almost as sensitive as magnetic resonance imaging, which is probably the best diagnostic test available to date, but is not widely used because of its expense, says study co-author Dr. Stephen Phillips, a Mayo radiologist. An MRI scan costs as much as 10 times more than a traditional mammogram and involves injection of a contrast agent.

O’Connor presented the findings at the 2006 meeting of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.