New Mammographic Technique Detects More Cancers

The study was published in the October 2003 issue of Radiology.

The technique involves the injection of a contrast agent to highlight new blood vessel development that accompanies malignant growth. Two images are taken at different energy levels and subtracted from one another to disclose the tumor. In the study, researchers used the technique to evaluate 26 patients whose mammograms or breast exams warranted a biopsy. They found that 13 of the patients had invasive cancers, of which 11 were strongly enhanced. In another patient, a case of intraductal carcinoma in situ showed a weakly enhanced duct. The 12 benign cases showed either weak enhancement or none at all.

"This technique may also be useful for examining the breasts of women who have already been diagnosed with one cancer to identify potential undetected malignancies,” said lead author John M. Lewin, M.D., associate professor of radiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (Denver, USA; www.uchsc.edu). The new technique is less costly than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), he noted, and the procedure is similar to conventional mammography with the addition of an intravenous injection.




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