About...
Screening and diagnosis
Breast cancer takes years to develop. Early in the disease, most breast cancers cause no symptoms.
The purpose for using imaging for screening is to find suspicious tissue in a non-symptomatic woman when it is still too small to be felt by you or your doctor. Imaging technologies such as mammography reveal small changes in tissue that may indicate presence of breast cancer. Finding small breast cancers this way greatly improves a woman’s chance for successful treatment.
A diagnostic exam may be comprised of mammogram, MR and/or ultrasound and takes place when a woman has an breast complaint or had an abnormality found during a screening exam. Often times, what appeared to be an abnormality in the exam is determined to be normal on further examination. Sometimes the diagnostic work-up suggests that a biopsy is needed. If this occurs, you should know that 80% of all breast changes that are biopsied are found to be benign or non-cancerous.
Therapy planning and treatment monitoring
Today the standard of care for breast cancer surgery is mastectomy and lumpectomy plus radiation. One of the biggest challenges in the radiation process is avoiding normal tissue. This is especially critical for the left breast and the proximity to the heart. GE Healthcare has developed unique CT-based therapy planning solutions that can reduce cardiac radiation up to 50%.
Your doctor may also use other imaging like PET/CT and Nuclear imaging to stage recurrent or metostatic breast disease and determining response to therapy technologies.
The mammogram
Special types of X-ray systems are used for mammography, which usually involves taking two X-ray pictures (views) of each breast. A mammogram can find abnormalities 1-3 years before they can be felt.
Breast MR
MRI uses magnets and radio waves to produce very detailed cross-sectional images. MR scans look doe masses like other imaging techniques, but the technology is sensitive to detecting increased vascularization or new blood vessels that feed tumors. Highlighted by the injection of a special dye, breast tumors enhance or "light up" on MR scans.
Breast Ultrasound
High frequency sound waves are used to produce real-time pictures of the internal structures of the breast, including blood flow. Breast ultrasound is most often used as part of the diagnostic workup to help determine the nature of an abnormality. It can also be used as a supplemental tool for testing and to provide image guidance for biopsies.
PET/CT
The PET exam provides biologic function – finds the "hot spots" or potential areas of interest while the CT exam provides the anatomic information, which can help, localize those hot spots. This technology is useful for staging cancers, restaging and monitoring response to therapy technologies.
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