Oct 29, 2009 5:35 pm US/Eastern
New Test Gives Women Faster Breast Cancer Results
BURLINGTON, Mass. (WBZ) ―
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Using Breast Scintigraphy, doctors can see through the dense tissue to get a better look at suspicious spots.
WBZ
There's nothing more nerve-wracking for a woman than when she's told there's a suspicious spot on her mammogram.
The patient either has to have a biopsy to figure out whether it's cancer... or wait six months and come back for a repeat mammogram.
But now Lahey Hospital is offering a new alternative that can tell women them right away whether or not they have cancer.
Melissa Mills feared the worst when she had an abnormal mammogram three weeks ago, especially because her mom had breast cancer.
"They saw a cloudy area, they told me to come back and have another procedure," said Mills.
So Melissa came to the Lahey Clinic to undergo a new breast gamma imaging procedure called breast scintigraphy.
Doctors inject a radioactive substance into a patient, then use a specialized high-resolution camera to take pictures of the breast. It enables them to see so-called "hot spots" where cancer is present.
Dr. Betsy Angelakis, Director of Breast Imaging at Lahey Clinic explains, "It allows us to look through very cloudy or dense breast tissue or areas of concern to see if cancer cells are there."
And instead of having to wait days or weeks to find out, patients get the results right away
Dr. Angelakis says, "This test allows us to look at breast tissue in another way to determine whether a biopsy is necessary."
Fortunately for Melissa, her tests showed she's cancer free.
"I am extremely glad I did have to come back for biopsy, it was amazingly simple getting the answer, it was immediate," says Mills.
Interestingly, it was an accidental discovery that scintigraphy could help identify breast cancer.
When doctors were using the technique to look for coronary artery disease during stress tests of the heart, they discovered the radioactive substances also lit up areas of breast cancer.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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