MBIs Hold Hope For Early Detection

From the Mayo Clinic comes word that Molecular Breast Imaging is More Effective than Mammography at Detecting Cancer in High-Risk Women with Dense Breasts

The information released this week says "MBI is a relatively new screening method that, while more expensive than mammography, is about one-fifth of the cost of breast MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). With MBI, patients are injected with a short-living radioactive agent that is absorbed by breast tissue. This agent is tracked with a specialized camera that can distinguish healthy tissue from breast cancer tumors, as cancer cells absorb more of the radioactive agent than healthy cells. MBI is currently available at a limited number of cancer centers, but its availability is growing."

“These results suggest that MBI could become an important screening tool for women who have dense breast tissue and increased breast cancer risk,” said Carrie B. Hruska, PhD, a research fellow in the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Speaking as a woman who had a negative mammogram in a breast that obviously contained a significant thickening, and was later diagnosed as cancerous after ultrasound, biopsy and MRI imaging was completed, I'm looking forward to finding out if the medical community can prevail on the insurance machine to be enlightened enough to use this information as a way that could potentially nip any future problem in my remaining breast in the bud.