March 2009 Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource Highlights Molecular Breast Imaging, Canes and Walkers, Training for an Event and Hormone Therapy...( ROCHESTER Minn. March 10 -- Here are...),Health

ROCHESTER, Minn., March 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Here are highlights from the March issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource. You may cite this publication as often as you wish. Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource attribution is required. Reprinting is allowed for a fee. Include the following subscription information as your editorial policies permit: Visit www.bookstore.mayoclinic.com or call toll-free for subscription information, 800-876-8633, extension 9751.

March 2009 Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource Highlights Molecular Breast Imaging, Canes and Walkers, Training for an Event and Hormone Therapy for Women

Molecular Breast Imaging: A Better Way to Spot Tumors in Dense Tissue

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Molecular breast imaging (MBI), a new screening method for breast cancer, identifies tumors in dense tissue that often aren't visible with mammography. In the March issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource, Deborah Rhodes, M.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher who helped develop the technology, discusses why MBI may eventually serve as an adjunct to mammography.

MBI overcomes a shortcoming of mammography, which is taken with X-rays. The X-ray imagery doesn't differentiate between tumors and dense breast tissue. On a mammogram, they both appear white.

"With MBI, a tumor is easy to see, even if it's in dense breast tissue," says Dr. Rhodes.

Here's why: With MBI, a woman is given an injection of a short-lived radioactive agent. This material accumulates in tumor cells more than it does in normal cells. Using a radiation-detecting camera, tumors show up as hot spots on the resulting image.

In a recent Mayo Clinic study comparing MBI with mammography, MBI detected three times as many cancers in women with
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