Stereoscopic digital mammography: improving detection and diagnosis of breast cancer

Abstract Detecting and interpreting subtle breast lesions with standard film mammography is often difficult because of underlying and overlying normal tissue superimposed on the lesion in standard 2D views. Stereoscopic digital mammography may solve this and other problems of ambiguity by permitting the radiologist to view the lesion in the volume, separated from the superimposed tissue in depth. We have acquired both film and stereo mammograms on women prior to biopsy of a suspicious lesion. In a reading study with experienced mammographers, stereo mammography, as an adjunct to film, was shown to significantly improve diagnostic accuracy. But even more importantly, readers detected many new lesions in the stereo mammograms that were not visible in the films.