Breast Cancer Treatment Reduced to One Week - Chicago Hospital to Offer New Clinical Study

EVERGREEN PARK, Ill., Jan. 29, 2008 -- Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers in Evergreen Park, Illinois, near Chicago (http://www.PursuingPainFreeCancer.org/breastcancer), has announced it will offer a new clinical study by Xoft using electronic brachytherapy for the treatment of early stage breast cancer. The study involves the delivery of a safer form of radiation to breast cancer patients that will reduce the average treatment time from seven weeks to just one week.

Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System uses a small electronic, low-energy X-ray source that delivers controlled radiation treatment directly to the targeted area. It is similar to another known procedure called Mammosite, but uses a different type of radiation. The Electronic Brachytherapy System uses a balloon-like device, which is implanted at the targeted area. Twice a day for five days, the balloon is expanded and a miniature X-ray tube is inserted.

press release

Digital Mammography Better Than Film for Some Women

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

TUESDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDay News) -- For some women, digital mammography is a better bet than traditional film mammography, a new study confirms.

Women under the age 50 with dense breasts who are premenopausal or perimenopausal get more accurate results with digital mammograms, said study author Dr. Etta Pisano, the Kenan professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill.

Pisano was the principal investigator for a landmark study published in 2005, known as DMIST, that compared digital to film mammography for all women.

Dr.Koop.com

Device zeroes in on small breast tumors

A new medical imager for detecting and guiding the biopsy of suspicious breast cancer lesions is capable of spotting tumors that are half the size of the smallest ones detected by standard imaging systems, according to a new study.

The results of initial testing of the PEM/PET system, designed and constructed by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, West Virginia University School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine will be published in the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology on Feb. 7.

source article

No Easy Answers to Reduce Mammography Discomfort

Health professionals are seeking an answers to remedy one of the major issues that keep women from getting routine breast screening mammography. According to Dawn Miller, a physician and women’s health researcher at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago in New Zealand., many women will not go or return for a mammogram because of pain or concern about pain from screening.

Miller led a review which studied various interventions designed to reduce the discomfort of mammography. While no single answers resulted from the review, Miller did note that the better women were prepared for the study, the less discomfort was noted. She stressed that it should be routine practice for women to be well informed about the benefits of mammography, what is involved in the procedure and why, and the possibility of pain or discomfort.

Millers team explored seven randomized control trials and included 1600 women. Among the pain relief possibilities were written and verbal pre-exam information; the use of analgesics; and the use of breast cushions. The study was published in a recent issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration.

source material

Health insurance co-payments deter mammography use

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When faced with even a modest health insurance co-payment for a mammogram, significantly fewer women receive these potentially life-saving breast cancer screenings, according to a new study by Brown University and Harvard Medical School researchers.

In this large-scale investigation of the relationship between health insurance co-payments and mammography rates, researchers found that screening rates were 8 percent lower among women with a co-payment than among women with full insurance coverage. Researchers at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, with a colleague from Harvard Medical School, publish their results in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“The message is simple and it’s startling – a small co-payment for a mammogram can lead to a sharp decrease in breast cancer screening rates,” said Amal Trivedi, M.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Community Health at Alpert Medical School.

Brown University

Cost Effectiveness Of Digital Mammography Screening Questioned

ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2008) — Digital mammography does not improve health enough to warrant its higher cost unless its use is limited to women under age 50 or women with dense breasts, according to a cost-effectiveness study comparing digital mammography and conventional film mammography for breast cancer screening.

The Dartmouth-led study found that health outcomes were equivalent between screening methods when all women were considered, but improved when digital was limited to younger women or women with dense breasts, resulting in cost effectiveness only in those subgroups.

Science Daily

How to have a successful mammogram

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A paper cape sits loosely around your shoulders, covering your naked chest. A radiology technologist directs you toward an imposing-looking machine. As you hold your breath, one bare breast at a time is tightly compressed between two flat panels and X-rayed.

It's a scene that's been repeated more than 35 million times in the past year at certified mammogram facilities around the United States. No matter what their age, race or medical history, the female patients probably shared a similar experience during the 20-minute procedure.

source article

What is Mammography Quality Standards Act? (MQSA)

MQSA, or Mammography Quality Standards Act, is a federal act enacted by the U.S Congress in 1994. The purpose of the law is to set and enforce regulatory standards ensuring that all facilities performing mammography adhere to consistent high quality standards of practice. Under the law, all mammography facilities must: 1) be accredited by an FDA-approved accreditation body, 2) be certified by FDA, or its State, as meeting the standards, 3) undergo an annual MQSA inspection, and 4) prominently display the certificate issued by the agency. Currently the ACR, or American College of Radiology only nationally-approved accreditation body.

The MQSA sets standards for both the safety and functionality of the mammography equipment as well as the performance of technologists and radiologists operating the equipment. There are also several provisions which directly impact on patients, such as requirements for providing patients with written results, addressing concerns, and obtaining original mammography films.

FDA Website

Black women get breast cancer two decades earlier than white women

Black British women in Hackney, East London, are diagnosed with breast cancer 21 years younger than white British women, according to a Cancer Research UK study published online in the British Journal of Cancer.

In the first UK study to look at the patterns of breast cancer in black British women, the researchers studied 102 black women and 191 white women diagnosed with breast cancer at Homerton University Hospital in Hackney, East London, between 1994 and 2005. They found the black patients were diagnosed with breast cancer at an average age of 46 while the white patients were diagnosed at an average age of 67.

Cancer Research UK

With Expansion of Use of Digital Mammography Interest is Shifting to Advanced Applications

Susanne Schmitz,
Product Line Manager,
Digital, Capture Solutions


Since the mid-1990's, the mammography community has been increasingly focused on digitisation. Mammography has been one of the last areas in medical imaging to make the transition, due in part to the technical issues with making the high quality digital images to meet the challenging clinical task of breast cancer detection, the ability to effectively manage image handling and interpretation across all the steps of the mammographic examination, and the high cost of digital mammography systems.

The majority of mammograms today are still made with traditional film systems - and this will continue to be an important component of mammography imaging for many years to come - but as digital systems mature, they are becoming a viable option within the mammography center.

source article - Express Healthcare

MammoSite presents new treatment for breast cancer

By Liz McGathey, mckinney courier-gazette

The best news there is in the fight against breast cancer today is that most patients are now diagnosed in the early stage, thanks to increased awareness and early detection through routine mammograms. Not only do women diagnosed with early-stage cancer tend to receive positive prognoses, but they are also eligible for minimally-invasive, less time-consuming treatment options.

One of those options is MammoSite, a five-day targeted radiation therapy that is the most widely-used form of a new therapeutic category called accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI), meaning that radiation is delivered directly to the area directly surrounding the removed tumor, rather than the whole breast. With APBI, radiation treatment can be completed in just five days, rather than the traditional six weeks.

source article

Tabletop Imager meets USA Mammography Requirements

Compact tabletop imager that meets stringent mammography requirements now available worldwide

Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, announces today that it is introducing to the United States market its DRYSTAR(TM) AXYS(TM) tabletop imager, a compact hardcopy solution designed to fit a full range of applications including mammography, CT (Computed Tomography), MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), Computed Radiography (CR), and Direct Radiography (DR). The DRYSTAR AXYS is a multi-application, Direct Digital Imager (DDI) delivering mammography-quality images with 508 dpi image resolution, very short access time, and full flexibility with two film sizes on-line. The solution is currently the only tabletop dry hardcopy printer on the market that meets the stringent mammography requirements of the US market.

source article