For women, breast cancer is a dreaded and devastating disease. Over a lifetime, one in eight indian women are affected by breast cancer. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Although currently there is no way to prevent breast cancer, early detection is a woman's best hope for effective treatment and better survival rates.

Currently, breast cancer can be detected through a breast examination by a physician or by the woman herself; or conventional x-ray mammogram, which can find a tumor that is too small to be discovered by breast self-exam.

The use of technology to produce a picture of the breast is termed "imaging." Imaging is used several ways, among them:

Screening: Cancers found by screening mammography have a greater chance for cure and may be treated without mastectomy.
Diagnosis: Image-guided needle biopsies can replace many surgical biopsies, reduce cost, and eliminate scarring.

Conventional mammography

Conventional mammography is the way most breast imaging is performed. It is a technique that uses x-rays to create an image of the breast tissue on film. During a mammography, a woman undresses to the waist and stands in front of the mammography equipment, where her breast is slowly pressed between a plastic plate and the film while the x-ray is taken.

This "flattening" technique generally takes a few seconds. Typically, two x-rays are taken of each breast; more may be needed to view areas of special concern.

In recent years, advances have improved the procedure and reduced the radiation dose to very low levels. Even with technical advances in x-ray mammography there are still problems distinguishing malignant from benign tumors.

Three of four lesions that it detects are benign, resulting in unnecessary biopsies. Mammography misses about 15 percent of cancers. Many of the missed cancers occur in women with dense breast tissue. About 40 percent of women have dense breasts and this type of tissue can mask the presence of a tumor.

Digital mammography

Because mammograms are not foolproof, there is a need for newer technologies that are better able to detect breast cancer. With digital mammography it is possible to capture and display the x-ray information on computers, without the use of film. It is then possible to enhance the quality of the image and even magnify the view of specific areas of the breast. Digital images can be corrected for under- or overexposure.

This is especially useful in "dense" breast tissue, which makes visualization of cancer difficult. And digital images can be stored as electronic patient records, making them easier to retrieve and send to specialists for evaluation.

At this point in time it appears that digital images are as good as, but not better than conventional mammography. Even though, digital mammography is a step in the right direction in finding more sophisticated ways to detect breast cancer.

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