Painless 3-D mammograms

(New York-WABC, 2007) (WABC) -- A new machine to detect breast cancer? Not only is it said to spot tumors earlier, but it's supposed to be more comfortable than a mammogram.

Seven's On Call with Dr. Jay Adlersberg.

Breast cancer: One hundred and eight thousand women will be diagnosed with it this year. One in four will die. Detecting it as early as possible is crucial for survival, and now doctors are working on a new tool to track the tiniest tumors.

Scrapbooker Jennifer Graham can now cut, paste and keep track of her journey through cancer, a journey she thought she would never take.

"[I thought,] 'This can't be happening to me,'" Graham said. "I'm too young for this."

Like most women in their 30s, Graham never even had a mammogram.

"I did a self breast exam," she said. "And I felt a lump."

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, are working on ways to detect cancer in younger women and find smaller tumors than ever possible before.

"The idea is that being able to catch the cancer earlier, you'll be able to do something to potentially cure these women earlier," said Dr. Martin Tornai, a radiologist at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Tornai has created a new type of CT scanner that provides a 3-D image of the breast. Traditional mammograms provide only a 2-D image and can be painful, compressing the breast and distorting the image.

"Our first priority is to make sure that patients are going to be comfortable, because mammography often turns off a group of women from actually going to get regular screening mammograms," Dr. Tornai said.

During the new scan, the woman lies on her stomach. A camera swings up and down, encircling the breast and capturing hundreds of pictures. The images are combined to form a complete 3-D image.

Because of where many tumors are, they may be missed by mammograms. But not with the new scanner. It can also detect tumors as small as a tip of a pen. Mammograms detect lesions the size of a marble. Not only can this scanner detect the smallest cancer tumors, but it could detect even the threat of cancer. Dr. Tornai is combining his scanner with one that uses nuclear medicine to detect chemical changes in breast cells that could signal cancer.

Making this scanner a more powerful tool to help women like Graham live to finish not just one scrapbook, but many, many more.

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