U-WIRE
November 4, 2004
A group of bioengineers and mathematicians from the University of Utah hopes a new method of analyzing lumps in breasts will reduce the number of unnecessary tumor removal surgeries.
The Ultrasound CT is a diagnostic machine for breast cancerand has the potential to determine whether or not a mass of tissue is cancerous.
Barbara Richards, a voluntary participant in the testing at St. Mark's Hospital, said, "I have regular mammograms, and if it were me, I would have every test done before having surgery. This is just another test."
The machine gives more detailed information about the physiology, or the bulk tissue, and the anatomy of the breast than traditional mammogram methods, according to David Robinson, president and CEO of Techniscan, the company that founded Ultrasound CT.
"The computer-aided detection potentially finds abnormalities for the radiologists and provides more certainty beyond a normal ultrasound," said Robinson.
Rather than relying on breast compression, women lie on a table and place their breast through an opening into a cylinder filled with body-temperature water. The process takes half an hour and produces a three-dimensional image of the breast.
The machine uses inverse scattering to make tomographical images of the breast. The machine sends ultrasound waves through more than 180 locations of the submerged breast. The algorithms create images that will potentially tell whether the lump is malignant or benign.
"The procedure was pain-free and relaxing, I was almost asleep. It was nice," Richards said.
Robinson explained that the equipment's intent is to give a higher level of confidence of the quantitative measure of a lump in the tissue.
More than 80 percent of removed tumors are benign, according to the American Cancer Society. Women involved with those surgeries sometimes leave the hospital with scarred, dimpled or differently sized breasts.
One hundred fifty mammogram patients recently participated in a trial run of the equipment at St. Mark's Hospital.Hanover said women reacted positively to the CT at the hospital and hopes to have the approval of the FDA by early next year.
The original founders of inverse scattering studied at the U and include: Steve Johnson, James Whiskin, David Borup and Mike Berggren.
(C) 2004 Daily Utah Chronicle via U-WIRE
