It is a fact that one of the keys to reducing the number of women that succumb to breast cancer is early detection. Women in the US are urged to have a yearly mammogram after they reach a certain age, or if they have a family history of breast cancer. As a result of the practice of encouraging breast cancer screening, over 40 million mammograms are done annually in the United States, the majority of which are 2-dimensional digital mammography. Of those 40 million, about 10 percent, or 4 million women are requested to return for further exams, including about 1 million women who subsequently undergo minimally invasive biopsies. Of that number about 300,000 are discovered to have breast cancer. In the United States about 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year.
Although digital 2D mammography is one of the most advanced cancer detection tools we have today, a new development in technology is proving its value in reducing the number of women called back for further examination while at the same time detecting more cancers at earlier stages, thus saving more lives. That technology is known as 3D mammography.
As a breast cancer screening tool a 3D mammogram has a powerful advantage over traditional 2D mammograms for the following reason: because the breast itself is a three-dimensional object containing a complex array of structures and tissues including blood vessels, milk ducts, fat and ligaments, it makes sense that a more accurate picture of the breast is rendered in a three dimensional view. Since the structures within the breast are found at different heights within the breast, a 2D view will show these structures overlapping and intertwining, which in reality they do not. This inaccurate rendering of the breast is the primary reason why small breast cancers are sometimes missed and normal tissue sometimes confused for cancerous tissue in 2D mammograms. With 3D mammography this confusion is reduced significantly.
In New York City there are several facilities where 3D mammography is available. The following is just a partial list of those centers closest to or within Brooklyn:
Lutheran Medical Center
150 55th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11220
(718) 630-7763
Beekman Radiology PLLC
342 East 49th Street
New York, NY 10017
(212) 502-0046
Weill Cornell Imaging at NewYork-Presbyterian
425 E 61st St, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10065
(212) 821-0680
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