Great Strides Being Made With 3D Mammography In Rye Brook
RYE BROOK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month and greater strides are now being made in breast cancer detection, especially with 3D mammography having been recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
There aren't many of the new 3D digital mammography machines around yet, but Rye Radiology in Rye Brook has one.
LISTEN: WCBS 880's Pat Farnack With Dr. Diane LoRusso
Since WCBS 880's Pat Farnack was was overdue for a mammogram, she decided to get one there.
She spoke with Rye Radiology's Dr. Diane LoRusso, who described describes how this technology is different from other mammograms.
"The problem with mammography is its limitation and that's the reason women get squeezed when they have a mammogram is that they have overlap of tissue so the information is blurred by overlap. So we squeeze as much as we can and try to spread out that information, but it's a limitation," LoRusso said. "The way 3D works is you're still in compression and it's the same feeling of having a mammogram and, in addition to the regular traditional view, the tube then moves while you're still in compression for a few seconds and takes one millimeter, one millimeter, very thin, high detail sections of the entire breast. So, where an area was think or blurred, you can see a cancer you would not see on the traditional views."
"So, it's like looking through pages of a book. You're actually looking through the breast like pages of a book and depending on how thick your breast is, if you have a five-centimeter breast, you have 50 one-milimeter slices," she said. "The amazing thing, Pat, the dose is the same as a traditional as a traditional view."
There is also no waiting days or a week for the diagnosis.
The doctor gave Farnack the green light right then and there in the office.
The 3D technician, Eileen, who was in her 60s, told Farnack that she never thought she'd see technology like this in her lifetime.
For more information, visit Rye Radiology's website.
