Developed at UC Davis, the machine is the first breast CT to reach clinical testing in a generation. An early prototype was tested in the 1970s, but abandoned as impractical.

"We think this technology may allow radiologists to routinely detect breast tumors at about the size of a small pea," said John M. Boone, professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at UC Davis and the machine's developer. "In contrast, mammography detects tumors that are about the size of a garbanzo bean. Tumor size at detection is one of the most important factors in determining breast cancer prognosis, so if we can detect smaller cancers and do so routinely, survival from this disease will improve."

Unlike mammography, in which the breast is squeezed between two plates, the breast CT machine requires no breast compression.The patient lies face down on a padded table. The table has a circular opening in it, through which the patient places one breast at a time.

A CT machine under the table scans each breast. The screening takes about 17 seconds per breast.

"There was no discomfort," said Lydia Howell, a professor of pathology at UC Davis and a volunteer in preliminary clinical testing of the breast scanner. "But the more important advance will be if breast CT does detect tumors earlier than mammography. The earlier and smaller a cancer is when it is detected, the less the chance that it has spread to the lymph nodes, lungs or bones, and the greater the chance for a permanent cure and for breast preservation."

A mammogram is an X-ray taken through all the layers of the breast at once. The resulting image may not detect a tumor hidden by other structures within the breast. This is mor
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Contact: Claudia Morain
claudia.morain@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
916-734-9023
University of California, Davis - Health System
10-May-2005