State-of-the-art technology by experienced, caring physicians and technologists

The gold standard in breast cancer screening has been digital 2D mammography. These mammograms suffer from decreasing sensitivity in women with dense breasts or when breast tissue overlaps. The result can be unclear images that leave doctors unsure of what they see, and can lead to cancers being missed.

  • Up to 30% of cancers go undetected by standard mammography.
  • 52-76% of cancers are missed in dense breast tissue, where tumors are more difficult to identify.

That changes with wide-angle breast tomosynthesis. 3D Mammography Christie Clinic’s Department of Radiology offers True 3D Breast Tomosynthesis – the newest technology in breast cancer detection. 3D Breast Tomosynthesis images are taken in conjunction with the traditional 2D exam. This often clarifies whether a finding is a true abnormality or an overlap of normal structures. Standard, or 2D mammograms, consist of one picture of the breast in each position. The 3D mammography camera moves in an arc over the breast, taking several images.

This creates a layer by layer set of images of the breast tissue. Any patient who is a candidate for 2D mammography is also a candidate for 3D Breast Tomosynthesis. Patients with dense breast tissue especially benefit from the 3D imaging due to the thin sliced images.