If you are a woman, you surely hate mammography. It’s a painful procedure; has an error rate that is still high and the amount of radiation used for the imaging is still too much. But there is a new hope…

In the annual meeting of the RSNA (Radiological Society of North America), they presented a new technique and preliminary tests. The technique is called elasticity imaging. As the Wikipedia article says:

Elastography is an non-invasive method in which stiffness or strain images of soft tissue are used to detect or classify tumors. A tumor or a suspicious cancerous growth is normally 5-28 times stiffer than the background of normal soft tissue. When a mechanical compression or vibration is applied, the tumor deforms less than the surrounding tissue. i.e. the strain in the tumor is less than the surrounding tissue.

The preliminary tests show fantastic results. They’ve scanned 123 tumors, identified correctly all 17 cancerous lesions, and 105 out of 106 benign ones. Richard G. Barr, professor of radiology at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Youngstown, who presented the results, says:

This technique could significantly reduce the number of biopsies and increase the confidence of women that a detected lesion is truly benign. …There are no needles… The patient does not notice any difference from a standard ultrasound.

Why does it work? Tumors tend to be harder and less elastic than benign lumps and the test can distinguish a dangerous growth from a harmless one.

Left: normal; right: cancerous mammography image. Image source: Wikipedia

References:

• Ultrasound spots tumorous lumps (Nature)
• Elasticity Imaging: New Ultrasound Technique, Accurately Separates Benign From Malignant Breast Lesions (Cancer Commentary)
• Press Releases: Elasticity Imaging Identifies Cancers and Reduces Breast Biopsies (RSNA.org)