Advanced mammography technology at St. Joseph's/Candler offers more accurate results

Some women call it “scanxiety”—the completely normal and common reaction of worry and distress when they receive a mammogram callback.

Physicians don’t like making them, either. But thanks to 3D mammography, the number of callbacks is much smaller than it once was.

“In the past, mammography meant getting two views of each breast in flat, compressed images,” explains radiologist Dil Patel, MD, of Savannah Chatham Imaging. Dr. Patel serves as Medical Director of St. Joseph’s/Candler’s Telfair Pavilion. “Overlapping breast tissue could sometimes look like a mass, so then the patient would be called back for additional imaging.”

When an abnormality is seen but turns out not to be cancer, this is known as a false positive. The emergence of tomosynthesis, better known as 3D mammography, has reduced the number of both false positives and callbacks. The technology takes multiple images from several different angles and reconstructs them into thin slices of information that radiologists can examine in greater detail.

“These multiple slices allow us not only to look at a suspicious area, but through it,” Dr. Patel says. “This way, we can often see that what appears at first to be a mass is normal breast tissue overlapping itself.”

The accuracy of 3D mammography also helps with the crucial ability to detect a genuine mass earlier. This, coupled with the decreased incidence in false positives and callbacks, should remove any hesitation for women aged 40 or above to get their mammogram every year.

“With a yearly 3D mammogram, we can pick up on subtle changes quickly,” Dr. Patel says. “A quicker diagnosis leads to earlier treatment and better outcomes. At the same time, with fewer false positives, we are not causing stress and undue anxiety. These advances have made a huge impact on all aspects of breast cancer care.”

Find an imaging center near you today and make your next mammogram appointment.