Mammography’s 3D Future

About 1 in 8 women in the US will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society.

For decades, mammography screening has been used to diagnose women given the large medical consensus that it reduces breast cancer mortality. Criticism of 2D mammography has grown over time, though, especially because of the number of false positives. Dr. Julianne Greenberg, Director of Breast Imaging for Washington Radiology Associates is the co-author of two large studies published in 2014 in The American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) and The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which show that 3D mammography—technically known as breast tomosynthesis— finds significantly more invasive cancers and reduces unnecessary recalls.

MedicalExpo e-magazine: When was 3D mammography invented?

Julianne Greenberg: 3D mammography has been in development for close to 20 years. However, it was approved in the United States for clinical use by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011. It is an up and coming technology and I am pretty confident that in a relatively short period of time it will become a standard of care like 2D mammography is today.

The majority of the mammography machines are not 3D mammography yet, but the transition process with a new technology always takes a little bit of time.