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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – More than 310,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year – that averages to about one in eight women. With early detection and advanced treatments, breast cancer is now one of the most survivable cancers. Mammograms are the gold standard for screening, but they’re not perfect. Now, there’s a new screening tool that’s helping detect tumors mammograms miss!

“My breast cancer had metastasized to my liver,” says Sandy Cassanelli, a breast cancer patient.

Jose Barbot says, “My mom died of breast cancer when she was 46. I was 21.”

“When you’re initially given the diagnosis, your focus is on survival,” Jane Obadia, a breast cancer survivor, says.

Although every woman’s story is different, all agree early detection is key. For 40 percent of women over 40 in the U.S., a mammogram is not enough when it comes to finding it.

“Some lesions or tumors can hide in the dense tissue, and it may not show up as clearly on a mammogram when women have dense breasts,” explains Laila Samiian, MD, breast surgeon at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mammograms miss about 20 percent of cancer during screening. Now, a new tool called ABUS is giving doctors a clearer picture.

Dr, Samiian further explains, “Whole breast ultrasound just, kind of, looks at the whole breast, so it just, kind of, scans across your whole breast up and down.”

Breast radiologists have women lie on their backs. The ABUS presses down on the chest wall. High frequency sound waves capture precise 3D images. For every one thousand patients getting an ABUS exam, one to two more cancers are found than with mammography alone. But Dr. Samiian stresses, it’s not a replacement for mammograms.

“There are things that the ultrasound will pick up that the mammogram won’t, and there are things that the mammogram will pick up that the ultrasound won’t,” Dr. Samiian adds.

The entire process takes about 30 minutes — time that could end up saving your life.

“Early detection saves lives. I am living proof of that,” says breast cancer survivor, Michelle Brubaker.

Another advantage – images taken with ABUS can be reproduced yearly to help with comparing tissue changes from year to year.

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