BOSTON -- In the fight against breast cancer, early detection is the key, and thanks to new technology developed at Massachusetts General Hospital, doctors may soon be able to detect cancer earlier than ever before.

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"The most exciting thing about this technology is that we're taking mammography to the next level," Dr. Daniel Kopans said.

It's called digital tomosynthesis. Developed and under study at Massachusetts General Hospital, the new three-dimensional technology offers a view of the breast not quite seen before.

"It works by looking at the breast in slices as opposed to all in one unit, and the value of that is that the surrounding structures are removed and that makes cancers more visible," Dr. Betty Rafferty said.

It may make early detection more possible. Compressing the breast just once -- not twice as in standard mammography -- tomosynthesis takes 11 pictures in 7 seconds. A computer then reconstructs them into 3-D images. The differences between conventional mammography and tomosynthesis are dramatic. Another powerful benefit of the technology is its potential to reduce false-positive test results.

"That's a quarter of the callbacks that would be eliminated and translated across the country, that's about a half-million to a million callbacks a year," Rafferty said.

Experts said that digital tomosynthesis could represent a huge leap forward in the fight against breast cancer.

"Conventional mammography, we know, is not perfect, but can save many lives. We think with tomosynthesis, we'll be able to save even more lives," Kopans said.

If this new 3-D mammogram is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it will likely become the standard screening examination for women over 40. Right now, however, only women who've been diagnosed with abnormalities of the breast are being tested.