By Jeff Meyers, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Jul. 15–PLATTSBURGH — New digital mammography equipment at the Women’s Imaging Center in Plattsburgh is improving the quality of screening for certain women.
Traditional film-screen mammography that has been used for the past several decades has aided doctors in detecting early breast cancer and has helped to dramatically reduce the death rates associated with the disease.
However, those exams could not always detect early cancers, particularly in younger women and those with dense breast tissue.
“Fatty breast tissue is typically easier to penetrate (with mammography x-rays),” said Fay Ashline, manager of the Women’s Imaging Center. “The new full-field digital mammography is the next step toward finding more early-stage cancers in women with dense breast tissue.”
DIGITAL IMAGERY
Digital mammography uses an electronic x-ray detector similar to those found in digital cameras. The detector converts x-ray photons to light, passing it through a fiber-optic cable to a device that converts light to a digitized signal for display on a computer monitor.
“This digital system seems to work better with women who are younger or have denser breasts,” said Dr. David Hammack of Lake Champlain Radiology Associates. “It’s an advancement that will help us better serve this population of women in need.”
With digital imagery, radiologists can alter the orientation, magnification, brightness and contrast as desired to interpret films.
Their workstation includes high-resolution monitors, required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to retrieve information and to review a patient’s previous studies in relation to updated images.
“The radiologist can make several copies of previous mammograms, adding to the efficiency for the radiologist to review previous studies in electronic format,” Ashline said.
The center also has new digitizing equipment that enables staff to transfer the old hard-copy x-ray photos to electronic images. As patients come into the center for appointments, staff has been switching their old x-rays to the new digitized format.
EXPENSIVE EQUIPMENT
The new process has also removed some of the waiting time that was required for women to receive information from their mammograms, Ashline noted.
“There is no longer a need for a darkroom to process films, and the images are checked for accuracy within 30 seconds,” she said.
Studies have shown improved screening quality for women in three categories:
women age 50 and under;
women of any age with very dense or extremely dense breasts;
women of any age who are pre- or peri-menopausal.
The new imagery also provides improved contrast between dense and non-dense breast tissue and offers the radiologist the ability to correct under or over-exposure without having to repeat examinations.
The equipment is expensive, Ashline noted, with the two new machines costing $750,000 and an additional $45,000 for the electronic digitizer. But the expense has been worth it over the first few weeks the equipment has been in use.
“The patients seem extremely pleased,” she said. “The exams are more comfortable and faster.”
EARLY DETECTION VITAL
The Women’s Imaging Center offers mammography services to Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties, performing an average of 60 mammograms per day.
The National Breast Cancer Foundation estimates that more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 die annually. One woman in eight either has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.
Approximately 1,700 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 450 will die each year as well.
If detected early, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer exceeds 96 percent. A mammogram is among the best early detection methods, yet 13 million U.S. women 40 years of age or older have never had the procedure done.
The National Cancer Institute and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend that women 40 and older have mammograms every one to two years. A complete early-detection plan also includes regular clinical breast examinations by a trained medical professional. Monthly breast self-exams are suggested as well.
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