More than 90% of patients who present with suspect or highly suspect breast lesions (BI-RADS categories 4 or 5) now undergo biopsies. Further treatment is only carried out after the precise histological clarification of the tissue sample is obtained. The intervention is routinely carried out via ultrasound guided punch biopsy. Thanks to new techniques the procedure is now becoming even more…
Since 1991 the International Breast Ultrasound School (IBUS) has indefatigably promoted progress and quality assurance in breast ultrasound -- a good reason for IBUS to celebrate its 20th anniversary during WFUMB.
Catastrophes draw people closer, as demonstrated by the development of the new high-end ultrasound scanner Aplio 500 from Toshiba. The clinical evaluation period took place during the tsunami and the nuclear catastrophe in Fukusima. Professor Thomas Fischer at the Radiological Institute, Charité Clinic in Berlin, was impressed by the enormous commitment shown by the Japanese firm’s engineers…
Research into new methods to prevent and slow metastatic breast cancer will be presented this week at the Era of Hope conference, a scientific meeting hosted by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP).
Yes, it’s in beautiful Dresden again and -- as in 2006 when the city last hosted the Congress of the German Society for Senology -- this year’s Congress President is Professor Rüdiger Schulz-Wendtland (Department of Radiology, University of Erlangen). However, the repetition ends there; the congress topics will be anything but repeated. Report: Meike Lerner
HI-RTE allows the assessment and real-time colour display of tissue elasticity. The current generation ultrasound modality has proven applications in breast, prostate, thyroid and pancreatic disease and where diagnostic biopsy is indicated, HI-RTE allows more accurate localization and targeting of lesions.
Every medical congress is an opportunity for the manufacturers to showcase their products. This year’s congress of the German Röntgen Society was no exception -- and one innovation particularly caught the attention of our European Hospital team: positron emission mammography, PEM for short.
Oestrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer, remains hard to treat despite major advances in surgery and adjuvant therapies. The latest results from a Swedish study [Pub: Breast Cancer Res. 2011 May 14;13(3):R49] suggest that a high daily intake of coffee -- more than five cups -- is associated with a statistically significant decrease in ER-negative breast cancer among postmenopausal women…
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. Evaluation of the axillary lymph nodes is essential to insure complete cancer removal. Fluorescence imaging instead of radioisotopes is an innovative method for sentinel lymph node detection.
Dr Bill Svensson believes that elastography has the potential to improve diagnosis of breast cancer, reduce the number of false positives in the detection of the condition and also lead to fewer biopsies performed as accuracy of imaging improves further. This June he highlighted the potential of elastography and the developments in the imaging modality at two sessions at the United Kingdom…
Although powerful, new, targeted treatments are regularly introduced to cancer clinics, choices for the first-line treatment of invasive breast cancer normally lie between preventive surgery and chemotherapy. A recent American study used genomic prediction combining multiple signatures to determine outcomes to standard chemotherapy.
Hologic announced today that its Selenia Dimensions digital mammography system in two dimensional (2D) mode has been awarded “EUREF Type Test” certification by the European Reference Organization (EUREF) Council for Quality Assured Breast Screening and Diagnostic Services.
From first lady of breast MRI to the Germany’s most influential woman in radiology – that’s one way to describe Professor Christiane Kuhl’s switch from being Vice-Chairman of the Department of Radiology and Vice President of the University of Bonn to become Chairman of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital Aachen (UKA).
Mammography is the most widely used modality for early detection of breast cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. But its limitations, such as the high number of false positives it creates, have led researchers to focus on different strategies to characterize breast carcinomas more accurately, such as tomography, MRI and molecular imaging. In a new horizons session today at…
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Europe: each year 350,000 new cases are diagnosed and each year about 130,000 women die of the disease. At the same time breast cancer is one of the few cancer types with encouraging healing prospects – if detected early.
In 2005, when they founded the French ultrasound company SuperSonic Imagine, Jacques Souquet PhD and Claude Cohen-Bacrie had to convince radiologists that they not only offered a new product but also a completely new ultrasound technology that could measure entirely new parameters.
It’s digital mammography taken to the next level – or, so to speak, the next dimension as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) that provides high resolution 3-D imaging. For about two years this exciting technology has promised to become the magic bullet in the early detection of breast cancer, particularly in the dense breast.
SECure TRAnsmission, the main aim of a spin-off from the Linköping Institute of Technology, was established in 1978. From this beginning, the Swedish firm Sectra has evolved into one of the world’s leading players in PACS and mammography solutions. Although secure communication systems remains a core business, the medical section has constantly grown since 1988, when Dr Torbjörn Kronander…
Breast cancer can develop very differently in different women. Researchers in Norway are improving breast cancer diagnostics and treatment by identifying the various tumour types. The objective is to find out as much as possible about the various tumour types so that each patient can receive precisely the right treatment at the right time.
A leading radiologist is forecasting a ‘paradigm shift’ in breast imaging. Dr Peter Brader, from Department of Radiology, Division for Molecular and Gender Imaging, Medical University Vienna, envisages that diagnosis and treatment will move from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to one of personalised molecular medicine by 2025. He also foresees greater use of theranostics with combinations…
There will be nearly 1.3 million deaths from cancer in Europe in 2011 according to predictions from a study published in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology. The estimates, which have been reached after researchers used for the first time in Europe a new mathematical model for predicting cancer mortality, show a fall in overall cancer death rates for both men and women when compared to 2007.
Breast cancer screening programmes are helping to reduce the mortality rates of women by finding cancer in its early stages when it is easier to treat. Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to introduce a screening program after succesful clinical trials in the 1980s. However x-ray radiation is also a risk factor for inducing breast cancer, meaning that a low radiation dose is…
The trend towards personalised medicine implies the development of targeted cancer therapy. Tissue based examinations by pathologists play a key role in this trend. However, the relevance is still underestimated as pathologist Professor Manfred Dietel noted in his lecture at the European Forum on Oncology 2010 in Berlin, which explained what pathology already actually renders to targeted cancer…
Tissue hardness provides radiologists and gynaecologists with significant information to help distinguish between benign and malignant tumours. Tumour tissue is harder and less malleable than normal glandular and fatty tissues. Therefore, the classification of tissue hardness determines whether a biopsy is necessary. For breast diagnoses, real-time tissue elastography, along with conventional…
High resolution radionuclide imaging is a technique increasingly used to detect breast cancers and has already been shown to offer improved diagnosis in many clinical situations. The technique, which will be discussed at RSNA 2010 (28 November to 3 December, Chicago) , is also allowing clinicians to detect previously unknown areas of breast cancer in women with newly-diagnosed disease.