Study Evaluates 3D Mammography for Breast Cancer Screening

It may seem obvious that a better, 3D version of the old mammogram is going to do a better job. But this isn't necessarily the case. Because we can assume that the technology is more sensitive, we need to find out whether or not this sensitivity actually correlates to benefit for patients. Sometimes, picking up more positive results may mean more stress and uncertainty, especially if many of these positive results end up being benign. Furthermore, more positive results lead to more invasive procedures and treatments, which may become more harmful than helpful if we are picking up many benign results. These are just some of the reasons why 3D mammography might not turn out to be all that it's cracked out to be.

We also want to know whether or not 3D mammography can tell us more details about lumps and bumps inside breast tissue. For example, if it's better and identifying more aggressive types of cancers than 2D mammography, it's best that we take this into account when choosing what kind of screening test to use. It would be worth it to consider using 3D mammography instead of the old test if it proves to be better at detecting higher numbers of advanced, life-threatening cancers.