Breast Imaging

Breast imaging tools contribute to the early detection and diagnoses of breast abnormalities like breast cancer.

Digital Mammography

A mammogram is a low-dose x-ray that captures a picture of the breast digitally and allows the image to be viewed on a computer screen. The breast is carefully positioned and gently compressed with a special paddle so that the maximum amount of tissue will appear in the image. This flattening also helps spread the tissue in dense parts of the breast more evenly so that a clearer picture of these areas can be obtained. It also helps doctors determine which changes are noncancerous (benign) and which are cancerous (malignant).

Females at average risk should begin getting their first mammogram at age 40 and continue to do so on an annual basis. While screening mammograms are routinely administered to detect breast cancer in those who have no apparent symptoms, diagnostic mammograms are used after suspicious results on a screening mammogram or after some signs of breast cancer alert the physician to check the tissue.

Mammogram Tips:

  1. When possible, schedule yourself for a breast tomosynthesis, also known as 3D mammography. This is an advanced technology that takes multiple images of breast tissue to recreate a 3-dimensional picture of the breast, resulting in additional cancers being detected while lowering false-positive readings.
  2. If applicable, schedule your mammogram at the end of your menstrual cycle when your breasts are least tender. The readings will be more accurate, the compression will be more comfortable, and when they compare films from year to year, they will be comparing breasts of similar status.
  3. When possible, go to the same imaging center each year. If you move or change sites, bring your digital records with you, so that current mammograms can be compared to past images.
  4. Make sure the center that is doing your mammogram is accredited by the American College of Radiology. This will ensure that accurate and safe dosages of radiation are being used.
  5. High-risk individuals may benefit from starting breast cancer screening at a younger age and supplementing annual screening mammography with a yearly breast MRI.

Breast Ultrasound

Breast ultrasound (also referred to as sonography or ultrasonography) is often used as a tool to help evaluate an abnormality detected through a clinical breast examination or mammography. During an ultrasound, the patient lies on the table and a gel is applied to the area of the breast that is being examined.

The sonographer or radiologist then glides a transducer, a small hand-held instrument, over the breast. The breast ultrasound uses sound waves to distinguish solid and fluid-filled masses. For example, a breast ultrasound can detect cysts which are fluid-filled, noncancerous masses.

Some physicians may require their patients to schedule a breast ultrasound with their routine mammography. The combined screening also detected more cancers with dense breast tissue, which can make it difficult to see cancers on a mammogram.

Breast MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast is a diagnostic tool that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to make digital 2-D and 3-D pictures of the breast. Sometimes a dye, known as contrast, is given to provide improved image clarity. A technologist will position the patient lying face down on a concave table. Both breasts will be positioned in the concave opening of the table which contains a breast coil that helps create pictures of the breasts.

A breast MRI is sometimes used for someone who already has been diagnosed with breast cancer, to help measure the size of the cancer, look for other tumors in the same breast, and to check for tumors in the opposite breast. But not everyone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer needs a breast MRI.

For certain people at high risk for breast cancer or with extremely dense tissue, a screening MRI is recommended along with a yearly mammogram. An MRI is not recommended as a screening test by itself because it can miss some cancers that a mammogram would find.

Although an MRI can find some cancers not seen on a mammogram, it’s also more likely to find things that turn out not to be cancer (called a false positive). This can result in a person getting tests and/or biopsies that end up not being needed. Therefore, an MRI is not recommended as a screening test for people at average risk of breast cancer.