Cone beam breast CT with multiplanar and three dimensional visualization in differentiating breast masses compared...

Area of Science:

• Radiology and Medical Imaging
• Oncology
• Diagnostic Imaging

Background:

• Mammography is the standard for breast cancer screening.
• Differentiating benign from malignant breast masses remains a challenge.
• Advanced imaging techniques are needed to improve diagnostic accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate cone beam breast computed tomography (CBBCT) with multiplanar and 3D visualization.
• To compare CBBCT's effectiveness in differentiating breast masses against two-view mammography.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-five patients underwent both CBBCT and conventional mammography.
• CBBCT involved 360-degree rotation for 2D projection acquisition.
• 3D CBBCT images were reconstructed and visualized using specialized software.

Main Results:

• CBBCT demonstrated higher accuracy in categorizing breast masses (BI-RADS) compared to mammography.
• Category variance ratios for CBBCT were closer to histopathology results (p<0.01).
• CBBCT achieved a higher area under the ROC curve (0.911) than mammography (0.827, p<0.01).

Conclusions:

• CBBCT is a distinctive noninvasive technology for differentiating and categorizing breast masses.
• CBBCT is potentially more effective than mammography for identifying small, uncertain, or multifocal masses.