Look beyond screening

Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer among women across Europe, with an estimated 494,000 new cases a year. Since the implementation of routine screening mammography, there has been a 30% reduction in breast-cancer mortality. While mammography remains the gold standard for detecting breast cancer, research has shown that
it is not equally effective in all women. Mammography is likely to help clinicians detect cancer in fatty breast tissue in most cases. However, as breast density increases, the likelihood of a cancer being detected is reduced.

"Dense breast tissue makes it very difficult to detect pathological lesions when they are still very small. Thus, many of the late diagnoses and the occurrence of interval cancers can be explained," says Dr László Tabár, emeritus professor of radiology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Uppsala. "With ABUS, we can now offer our patients a screening method that can find cancers hidden in dense tissue."

Having dense breast tissue represents a significant risk factor because it not only increases the likelihood of developing breast cancer but can also mask the appearance of the disease on mammography scans. However, a supplementary ABUS examination can increase the likelihood of early breast-cancer detection. Clinical studies have shown that if ABUS is used in addition to a standard mammography, the likelihood of finding invasive breast cancers has a 57% relative increase over mammography alone by maintaining an acceptable low recall rate.

"ABUS is a non-invasive examination that eliminates operator variation with improved technique standardisation," adds
Dr Brigitte Wilczek, who alongside colleagues at St Göran's Hospital in Stockholm conducted a study of 1,675 women to analyse the effectiveness of combining an ABUS examination with a traditional mammography. "One patient who participated in the study was a woman in her late 60s with more than 50% breast density. Her mammography screening results returned as normal, but ABUS revealed a tumour in the upper-outer quadrant of her left breast. ABUS is a valuable tool in the screening of women with dense breasts, and therapy assessment."

Fast and effective screening

Invenia ABUS is a powerful tool based on ultrasound. It offers automatic volumetric scanning, including image optimisation for image review and analysis to aid in diagnosis. The technology is providing great patient care, as it is a comfortable, non-ionising and non-invasive alternative to other complementary screening options for women with dense breasts. It allows a volume acquisition of the entire breast within just 15 minutes. Innovations such as the high-frequency reverse-curve transducer or software-based ultrasound technology provide the basis for excellent image quality. The Invenia ABUS review software displays 2D volume in a patented, coronary 2mm-layer management. The analysis is possible within approximately three minutes and, in contrast to handheld ultrasound, can result in time savings for clinicians.

ABUS benefits

ABUS offers a better survey for the surgeons by depicting the tumour and its surrounding with reference to the nipple in all three planes. Particularly, the coronal plane may represent the extension of architectural distortions better than the other planes and handheld ultrasound, and therefore supplements the tumour portrait within its tissue landscape. The precise and reproducible definition of the tumour location and automatically calculated distance to the nipple contributes to the preoperative quality assurance, says Professor Alexander Mundinger, chief radiologist at Marienhospital Osnabrück.

References available upon request.