Tomosynthesis in Breast Cancer Imaging: How Does It Fit into Preoperative Evaluation and Surveillance?

An important limitation of conventional two-dimensional mammography is the overlap of dense breast tissue obscuring masses. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has emerged as a mammographic technology that overcomes this limitation and is considered an overall better mammogram. DBT has been shown to detect significantly more breast cancer than conventional two-dimensional mammography, and to decrease the number of callbacks for diagnostic evaluation from screening mammography. Usually the callback evaluation is deemed to be overlap of tissue requiring no further management. DBT is used in the screening and diagnostic setting, and for guidance of wire localization or core biopsy, performing more accurately in the dense breast.