A DMT scan from one of Williams’ patients. The black circle indicates the region in which a biopsy was performed based on the traditional clinical examination results. Results of that biopsy were negative. The red area indicates where DMT scanning pinpointed the cancerous area.
Hybrid Scanner Developed by UVA Cancer Center Researchers Combines Two Cutting-Edge, 3-D Imaging Techniques Into All-in-One Breast Cancer Detection Device
UVA Health System researchers have developed a first-of-its kind breast imaging device with the potential to significantly reduce false positive imaging diagnoses – results that currently lead to a staggering number of unnecessary biopsies.
Furthermore, the novel device, called the dual modality tomographic (DMT) breast scanner, could one day provide a greatly improved method for detecting cancerous breast masses that are nearly impossible to find with current imaging technology.
The scanner has shown in a pilot study the ability to pinpoint to a much finer degree the exact location of breast masses –
and, importantly, to more accurately distinguish between cancerous and harmless lesions.
The pilot clinical study, led by Mark B. Williams, PhD, associate professor of radiology, biomedical engineering and physics at the University of Virginia, appeared in the April 2010 issue of Radiology.
The DMT breast scanner works by marrying two cutting- edge imaging methods into one integrated device; one that shows 3-D anatomical (structural) imaging and another that shows 3-D biological (functional) imaging. The machine runs the scans sequentially, obtaining both types of images of the breast. For both images the breast is in the same, immobilized position.
“Using the most current breast imaging methods, only about one in four of all biopsied breast lesions are found to be malignant – that is, the positive predictive value is about 25 percent – so there’s a great deal of room for improved imaging diagnostic capabilities,” says Williams. “Our pilot study
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