As the nation observes Breast Cancer Awareness month, doctors at Los Alamitos Medical Center say they now have the latest technology to fight the disease.
According to Radiologist Dr. Ankit B. Patel, the latest 3-D technology available to prevent breast cancer is now being used at the Total Care Breast Center, located on the campus of Los Alamitos Medical Center.
He said the process is called 3-D tomosynthesis. The imaging machines that create this technology are starkly different than older generation machines, which instead use 2-D (two dimension) technology.
The technology “is just another tool to give us a better look at breast density and to find smaller areas of asymmetry or architectural distortion,” said Patel.
Once a patient has the 3-D scan, “it is no longer just a static image,” he said. The high-tech machines literally create slices of the breast for medical examination, said Patel.
While the 2-D technology has been used for decades, he said the newer 3-D tomosynthesis has only been used for the past few years. Only now, he said, is the Food and Drug Administration and insurance companies generally covering its cost in prevention.
“Every patient should be able to get it,” he said. Soon, said Patel, it should become the standard of care for breast cancer and breast cancer prevention.
He said the cure rate for breast cancer is improving mostly because of new technologies that allow detection of the earliest sign of the dis ease. He said the rate of detection is determinate upon the rate cure. “The earlier you screen, the better the chance of survival,” he added.
He urges women to perform a “self-examination.” As women, “they know their bodies better than anyone else.”
As such, women should take seriously any breast pain, discomfort, nipple discharge, discoloration, lumps and especially if they notice retraction of the nipple, which he said is, in many cases, a major indicator of disease.
Women should start having annual exams at 40, though age varies, and even younger if there is a family history or genetic predisposition, said Patel.
Statistically, he said, the Los Al area is about average when he comes to the incidence of breast cancer, he added.
He said Los Al Medical already has one 3-D tomosynthesis unit in operation and is looking to purchase another one very soon.
Photo by David N. Young
