Medical Breakthrough '08: Better Than Mammo

Less invasive mammography alternatives are on the medical horizon.

The days of squashing your size-Cs into a pancake and enduring invasive biopsies that turn out to be false alarms may be ending. Two new medical technologies promise to make breast cancer screening a lot more accurate -- and ouchless:

• In a new, souped-up ultrasound procedure called elasticity imaging, doctors move a probe over a suspicious lump, creating multiple images and sending the data through special software. The computer analyzes the pictures and determines if the mass is soft or hard, a good indication of whether the lump is cancer (harmless cysts and calcifications are usually soft). Elastograms on 635 women predicted cancer 98.6% of the time, helping to avoid biopsies. That's better than mammograms or MRIs, says lead study author Richard G. Barr, a radiologist at Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy.
Available: Now

• A combination of low-radiation CT scan and nuclear molecular imaging (the kind used to look at blood flow in the heart) can provide 3-D images of the breast without compression and find lesions half the size of those typically found in mammograms. The patient lies facedown with her breasts through a cutout on the exam table, and the hybrid machine circles underneath. Martin Tornai, PhD, of Duke University, says this technology could also be used to monitor how well chemo drugs are shrinking a tumor.
Available: 5 years

From Reader's Digest - March 2008

 

• • Your Medical Care
• • Breakthroughs
• • Mind & Body
• Breast Cancer

• The New Mastectomy
• Find out what's being done to improve mastectomy results.
• 
• Breast Cancer: What You Should Know
• It's National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Find out what you can do if you or someone you love has been affected by the disease, how to protect yourself, and what you can do in the search for a cure.
• 
• Breast Cancer Myths and Misconceptions
• The truth behind some of the most common misconceptions about breast cancer.
• 
• Medical Breakthroughs for 2008
• New hope for cancer, diabetes, dementia and more.
• 

“ Make more room in your kitchen. If you have seldom-used small appliances that you want to keep, store them in other areas of the house where you have more space. ”

• See All Tips

• Be Inspired
• Meet a 12-Year-Old Making a Difference
• Help Prevent Teen Car Crashes
• Meet 6 Incredible Individuals
• PLUS:
• Quiz: Match the Celebrity With the Cause

For over 40 years my grandfather put in long hours at his job so I was more than a little curious about the way he filled his days since his retirement. "How has life changed?" I asked. A man of few words, he replied, "Well I get up in the morning with nothing to do, and I go to bed at night with it half-done."

-- Dennis Lundberg, Hyrum, Utah