[Breast tomosynthesis: a new tool for diagnosing breast cancer]

Breast cancer continues to be the most common malignant tumor in women in occidental countries. Mammography is currently the technique of choice for screening programs; however, although it has been widely validated, mammography has its limitations, especially in dense breasts. Breast tomosynthesis is a revolutionary advance in the diagnosis of breast cancer. It makes it possible to define lesions that are occult in the glandular tissue and therefore to detect breast tumors that are impossible to see on conventional mammograms. In considering the combined use of mammography and tomosynthesis, many factors must be taken into account apart from cancer detection; these include additional radiation, the recall rate, and the time necessary to carry out and interpret the two tests. In this article, we review the technical principles of tomosynthesis, it main uses, and the future perspective for this imaging technique.