New system to detect breast cancer earlier now available in Tri-Cities

Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland has begun offering an imaging procedure that may detect cancers when they are smaller and difficult to spot in some patients with routine mammography.

Early detection of cancer often leads to increased survival rates.

The technology, contrast-enhanced mammography, can be useful for people with dense breast tissue, which includes about half of all women. The denser a patient’s breasts, the greater the risk of cancer.

The procedure, which requires a doctor’s referral, combines the high resolution of mammography with an image provided by contrast dye.

Together they make potentially cancerous tumors easier to spot and may increase the chances that they are detected earlier, according to Kadlec.

In most cases, dense breast tissue and cancer both appear white on a standard mammogram, making it difficult to distinguish one from the other. The dye eliminates that confusion to make a tumor more obvious, even in its earliest stages.

A study published in the spring in the medical journal “The Lancet” found that contrast-enhanced mammography detected three times as many invasive cancers in dense breast tissue as an ultrasound, which is sometimes used in addition to conventional mammography if cancer is suspected in women with dense breasts.

Another study published last year in the medical journal “Radiology” reviewed medical records of 609 women with extremely dense breasts and found that contrast-enhanced mammography showed an additional 11 cancers compared with the type of imaging used in conventional mammography.

In a contrast-enhanced mammography, a patient receives an iodine-based dye through an IV, and minutes later a mammogram is done.

As the dye is absorbed, radiologists can more easily see the types of new blood vessels that typically form when cancer grows, highlighting subtle growth that might not appear in a standard mammogram, according to Kadlec.

In some cases contrast-enhanced mammography can replace the need for an MRI, saving the patient money and providing results faster, according to Kadlec.

Kadlec and Kadlec Tri-Cities Cancer Center donors and events they supported covered the entire cost of the new imaging system.

Fundraising included events held during Breast Cancer Awareness month, including Speck Family Motors’ Drive for a cure, which raised $50,000 toward the $150,000 investment in the new system.

Additional donations to support contrast-enhanced mammography and future advanced tools at Kadlec and the Kadlec Tri-Cities Cancer Center can be made through the website tccancer.org/foundation.