BOSTON -- If you're a woman over 40, doctors say you should have a mammogram every year. Experts say it is still the best way to detect breast cancer.
But now, NewsCenter 5's Rhonda Mann reported, some medical centers are offering an evolving technology that, combined with a mammogram, can find a higher percentage of cancers earlier than other methods.
"My mother and my grandmother both had breast cancer," said Dolores Green.
Green, a math teacher, knows her odds of getting breast cancer are higher than most women, so she's relieved that her latest mammogram will be read by both a radiologist and a computer.
"Anything that will give you more information, I think, is worthwhile," she said.
Computer Aided Detection, or CAD, takes either an X-ray or digital mammogram image and with the press of a button marks areas of concern -- like calcifications subtle abnormalities that a radiologist may have missed.
"There's a lot of information on these films, it's very subtle. We're working under a lot of pressure to go faster. There is not enough mammographers and it's a good way to help us," said Dr. Janet Baum, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, every screening mammogram now gets CAD. Areas that light up are looked at again.
"It's been shown to have about the same increased pickup of cancers as having the same radiologist without the expense of a second radiologist," said Baum.
CAD is not all that new and was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998. But the technology is becoming better, and newer systems can detect up to 68 percent of missed breast cancers 15 months earlier than they would have shown up on a traditional mammogram.
At $50,000 per unit, CAD is expensive, and it can't do everything. At Brigham and Women's Hospital, CAD has been an important addition, but radiologists note that the computer can't compare old scans to new ones.
"It only is marking today's exam. It can't tell you that something has developed since last year," said Dr. Robyn Birdwell of Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Doctors said having the additional computer check isn't a bad idea and it's already pointing out hard to detect cancers.
"It's not going to pick up 100 percent," said Baum. "But the name of the game is to pick up as many as we can, as early as we can."
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Rhonda Mann Reports On Computer
