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For Release After 9:30 a.m. CST, Monday, Dec. 1, 1997

3-D TECHNIQUE MAY ELIMINATE MANY UNNECESSARY BREAST BIOPSIES

CHICAGO -- A widely available digital technology that can be adapted to create 3-D pictures of the breast is showing promise in ruling out breast cancer in women who have had suspicious findings on mammograms, and may help avoid surgical biopsies. Information on the technology was presented here today during the 83rd Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The technique was used to image 44 women with abnormal mammographic findings and correctly ruled out a diagnosis of cancer in 18 of 30 women whose suspicious findings on mammograms were subsequently proven by biopsy to be benign. Of 14 cancers in the group, none was misdiagnosed by the technique, according to Andrew Maidment, Ph.D., director of radiological imaging physics, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia. Approximately two-thirds of all breast biopsies turn out to be noncancerous, according to Dr. Maidment.

"Breast biopsies are physically and emotionally traumatic for women," said co-author Emily Conant, M.D., associate professor of radiology and chief of breast imaging, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. "If we can improve the accuracy of our mammographic diagnoses, we can reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies. We believe this new technology will allow this advance."

The 3-D technique is an adaptation of a digital technology used in hospitals all over the world to guide needle biopsies to diagnose breast cancer.

"Stereotactic breast biopsy tables with digital detectors are currently in widespread use to image the breast and guide the probes that obtain tissue samples," Dr. Maidment said.

"The image quality of these systems is so good, we wanted to see if they could distinguish benign from cancerous lesions before a biopsy was performed." The adapted system can create 3- dimensional or 2-dimensional images of the breast. The women in the study also were imaged with magnification mammography -- a conventional x-ray technique that looks at a specific area of the breast. "The conventional x-rays were 36 percent accurate, compared to 64 percent with 2-dimensional images obtained with the stereotactic digital system and 77 percent when 3- dimensional images were created using the digital system," Dr. Maidment said.

Approximately 1,000 stereotactic digital breast biopsy systems are currently in use in the United States, Dr. Maidment said. The 3-D images are obtained with the addition of a relatively inexpensive software program. "The eventual cost of obtaining a 3-D image with this technology would probably be comparable to the cost of conventional magnification mammography," he said. Co-authors of a paper on the topic presented by Drs. Maidment and Conant during the RSNA meeting are M. Albert, Ph.D.; S. Feig, M.D.; C. Piccoli, M.D.; and S. Nussbaum, M.D.

The RSNA is an association of 30,000 radiologists and physicists in medicine dedicated to education and research in the science of radiology. The Society's headquarters are located at 2021 Spring Road, Suite 600, Oak Brook, Illinois 60523-1860.

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Copies of 1997 RSNA news releases are available online at http://www.pcipr.com/rsna beginning Monday, Dec. 1.

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