BOUNTIFUL – Lakeview Hospital has new ultrasound technology that enables earlier detection of tumors invisible on a mammogram for women with dense breasts.

The Automated Breast Ultrasound System (ABUS) more readily and accurately diagnoses cancer when it’s smaller and more curable, said Dr. Jose Perez-Tamayo, medical director of women’s imaging at Lakeview and Ogden Regional Medical Center. With the new technology, tumors appear as black masses and are much easier to identify. On a mammogram, fibrous and glandular tissue in breasts looks white, and so does a tumor. When there is more tissue than fat, it is like looking for a snowball in a snowstorm while imaging clinicians are screening for cancerous growths.

“Screening mammography is safe and effective for many women. However, mammograms can be less sensitive and harder to interpret if a woman has dense breast tissue,” said Perez-Tamayo. “That’s why we’re using the new ABUS technology to help us detect cancer in its early stages for women with various levels of breast density.”

Perez-Tamayo said dense breast tissues on a mammogram relates to the amount of glandular and fibrous tissue that appears as white on a mammogram as opposed to fat tissue that appears dark.With increased amounts of this dense tissue, subtle tissue changes or small cancers can be obscured as the x-rays that are used to obtain the image are blocked by the dense tissue.

“Further, having this dense type of tissue is known to increase the risk of developing breast cancer,” he said. “Though younger women tend to have a greater amount of glandular tissue, a significant number of women will have dense breast tissue on their mammograms for their entire lives.”

ABUS uses sound waves rather than x-rays so radiologists are able to see through all of the breast tissue from the skin to the chest wall.For many years, ultrasound has been routinely used for targeted evaluation of abnormalities detected on mammograms, because it can readily distinguish between solid and fluid filled masses. ABUS is a new FDA approved technology that allows radiologists the ability to reliably examine both breasts entirely without additional radiation and with much less patient discomfort, and to correlate the findings to the original mammogram.

“I happened to be in the elevator at the hospital when I saw a flyer about the new technology regarding dense breasts,” said Centerville resident Tami Timothy. “I have dense breasts so I made an appointment to get in there, especially after reading the part about how a tumor is like finding a snowball in a snowstorm with dense breasts.”

Timothy said the test took about 20 minutes and wasn’t as uncomfortable as a mammogram.

“They use the ultrasound machine to roll across your breasts and it can get a bit uncomfortable but it’s not bad at all,” she said. “I got my results back within a week and it gave me such peace of mind knowing that everything is fine. I talked to another lady who had a normal mammogram but a tumor was found with ABUS so they were able to get her right in and get her started with treatment.”

In the United States, 40 percent of women have been diagnosed with dense breasts. Multiple studies have shown that breast density can negatively impact the effectiveness of annual screening mammograms. One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed mammography sensitivity is reduced by 36 to 38 percent in women with dense breasts, as density masks the appearance of tumors. As breast density goes up, the accuracy of mammograms in screening for cancer goes down.

“Breast cancer rates have not significantly changes, despite the controversies in the media.For a normal woman without familial or genetic risk, one out of eight to 10 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime,” Perez-Tamayo said. “Women with a genetic mutation, such as a mutation in the BRCA gene, can have a risk as high as 85 percent whereas familial risk can vary from 15 to 3 percent.”

Perez-Tamayo said it is very important to understand that 75 percent of breast cancers occur in women with no family history.Screening for breast cancer is very important because it is so common, and because treatment and survival is significantly better when the cancer is found early. The American College Of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American College of Surgeons, American Cancer Society, American College of Radiology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Society of Breast Diseases all recommend annual screening for women at age 40.

“Since the behavior or aggressiveness of most cancers cannot be reliably predicted at diagnosis, there is no convincing evidence that ‘over-treatment’ can be avoided,” Perez-Tamayo said. “If I am diagnosed with a cancer, I would much prefer to have the most thorough treatment rather than to gamble on whether or not it will kill me.”