New mammography technique shows promise

By Elizabeth Cooney, Globe Correspondent

A new technology for performing and interpreting mammograms shows early promise of greater accuracy in detecting cancer, according to a paper presented today at a radiology meeting.

Results from an ongoing trial comparing stereoscopic digital mammography to standard digital mammography showed that the newer technique was more accurate in spotting breast cancer, a group from Cambridge and Atlanta reports.

Stereo mammography uses two digital x-rays of the breast taken eight degrees apart to create a view with three-dimensional depth. The radiologist looks at the resulting image at a workstation that fuses the two images.

David J. Getty of BBN Technologies in Cambridge is the lead author of the paper that says stereo mammography missed fewer cancers and made fewer false-positive findings. His company developed the workstations used in the trial. Co-author Carl D'Orsi of Emory University Breast Clinic disclosed relationships with General Electric Co. and Hologic Inc., makers of imaging equipment.

In the trial conducted at Emory, 1,093 women at high risk for breast cancer were screened with both stereo and standard digital mammography.

Independent radiologists who read the studies found 259 suspicious findings, the paper said. Of those, 109 were confirmed as cancer by additional tests, including biopsies. Standard mammography missed 40 cancerous lesions compared to stereo mammography, which missed 24, the authors say.

Standard mammography produced 103 false positives and stereo mammography had 53.
The trial will include 1,500 women when it ends in December, the authors say. The paper, like others presented at meetings, has not been peer-reviewed.