ROLE OF TOMOSYNTHESIS IN EVALUATION OF BREAST LESIONS

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women; despite increasing incidence rates, annual mortality rates from breast cancer have declined, due to the combination of earlier detection using screening mammography and improvements in treatment. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a technological advancement of mam¬mography over two-dimensional digital mammography which is designed to take three dimensional image of the breast, DBT may be useful in both the screening and diagnostic evaluation. The potential benefits of DBT include improvement in screening sensitivity, improvement the detection of lesion size, improvement in characterization, and decrease in recall rates. In theory DBT, with thin section display, should allow superior detection of lesions that historically have been masked by overlying tissue. The primary benefit of DBT would be expected to be for non-calcified mammographic findings such as masses, asymmetries and distortion.