New Imaging Modalities for Breast Cancer Screening

Introduction: Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women. It occurs when cells in the breast start to grow out of proportion and invade neighboring tissues. Early detection through screening has been considered an important factor in reducing mortality from this disease. The relative risks and benefits of breast cancer screening have recently been challenged since some experts now consider the risk of detection of cancers that will never harm patients and false positive examinations to outweigh the benefits of earlier detection of clinically important tumors that reduce breast cancer mortality. This paper will review the evidence to date on the imaging modalities for breast cancer screening. The aim of this review is to compare the imaging modalities for screening breast cancers.Methods: The Keywords breast, cancer, screening, imaging were searched in PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus according by MeSH keywords. Finally articles from 2014 to 2018 were evaluated.Results: Each of the modalities of breast cancer imaging is usable for detecting some kinds of abnormalities in breast tissue and each of them may have some advantages and disadvantages for example Ultrasound, used as an adjunct to mammography in women with radiologically dense breasts, detects additional cancers and causes additional false positives. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may have a better sensitivity (but lower specificity) than mammography in selected high-risk women, but studies of this technology included small number of cancers. Computer-aided detection may enhance the sensitivity of mammography and warrants further evaluation in large prospective trials. Mammography also has undergone increased scrutiny for false positives and excessive biopsies, which increase radiation dose, cost, and patient anxiety. In response to these challenges, new technologies for breast cancer screening have been developed, including low-dose mammography, contrast-enhanced mammography, tomosynthesis, automated whole breast ultrasound, molecular imaging, and magnetic resonance imaging. Mammography plays a key role in early breast cancer detection. Single-institution studies have shown that adding tomosynthesis to mammography increases cancer detection and reduces false-positive results.Conclusions: Serial screening with mammography is the most effective method to detect early stage disease and decrease mortality.

کلیدواژه ها:

Breast Cancer ، Imaging ، Mammography ، Screening