Innovative Breast Ultrasound system for cancer screening in women with dense breast.

Courtesy: GE systems

Mammography is the gold standard for early detection and cancer screening for breast cancer, however it may miss the cancer in about one third of patients with dense breast tissue. According to a study about 40% of women in US have dense breast.

Dense breast also increases the likelihood of developing cancer by 5 to 6 times as compared to women with normal breast density.  Often the cancers are detected very late in women with dense tissue because of imaging difficulty.

GE Introduced a new version of its automated breast ultrasound system ‘the Invenia Automated Breast Ultrasound System(ABUS)’.

Courtesy: GE systems

GE says, “Invenia ABUS is a comfortable, non-ionizing alternative to other supplemental screening options for women with dense breast tissue. When used in addition to mammography, Invenia ABUS can improve breast cancer detection by 35.7 percent over mammography alone.” It is not a substitute for mammography but a non-ionizing adjunct to the procedure and can detect early stage, node negative, invasive cancers.

The Invenia ABUS system is designed for screening and it shifts the diagnostic approach from hardware based system to software based system. The system creates a reproducible, fully automated scan that takes 15 minutes to complete. It captures whole breast three dimensional images that are displayed at the workstation as 2mm coronal view slices.

It also adjusts the signals levels in the nipple area so that it looks like surrounding tissue enhancing visualization. Other distinct features helping in better image quality and increasing visualization are Breast Border Detection and Chest Wall Detection.

The reverse curve transducer is designed to enhance the breast coverage and patient’s comfort during examination. Patients also report to be more comfortable because of absence of the pressing and pain sensation so common to mammography.

The system received FDA approval in 2014 and currently 180 hospitals are using it. 

The European Asymptomatic Screening Study screened 1,668 women between the ages of 40-74 with ABUS in a 15-minute exam after they had already undergone digital mammography screening. The results showed a 57 percent relative increase in cancer detection.

The findings were equivalent to 6.6 cancers detected per 1,000 women, compared with 4.2 percent of those who received mammography alone.

In a recent interview with medgadget[1] at the National Consortium of Breast Centers Conference,[2]Dr. Georgia Giakoumis Spear of NorthShore University Health System affirmed that ABUS is complementary to mammography and it is not meant for replacing it.  The NorthShore hospital is using the system for 15 months and is extremely satisfied with the results. They found about 25 cases of occult breast cancer not detected by mammography. 

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[1] http://www.medgadget.com/2017/03/breast-cancer-detection-using-ultrasound-interview-dr-georgia-giakoumis-spear-northshore-university-health-system.html

[2] https://www2.breastcare.org/welcome-to-the-annual-national-interdisciplinary-breast-center-conference/