Any company should first design a program for physicians to exercise on how to read digital mammography files. Realizing this, Hologic, a major company providing breast imaging systems, decided to offer training on its new 3D digital mammography device before it becomes commercial product on the U.S. market.
Arthur Friedman, Hologic’s senior vice president in charge of regulatory, clinical, and quality issues mentioned “It is mammography" href="/tag/digital-mammography.html">digital mammography, so it’s nothing that new”. He added” But there are slight differences.” Dr. Emily Conant, a professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, explained “ When interpreting conventional digital mammography, radiologists mentally “ triangulate” 2D images. Tomosynthesis allows us to scroll through the breast to see in-plane imaging at various depths. She Added ” With this, we can find lesions that potentially we couldn’t see before, or explain away pseudolesions that would otherwise lead to false positives, but lesions seen in 3D look different, than those in 2D"
Two studies have been made by Hologic to review how physicians should be trained to interpret these images, Friedman said. Moreove , He said that if all goes according to the plan, Hologic’s 3D digital mammography system could become a commercial product on the U.S. market within six months. Breast tomosynthesis will complement, not replace, 2D digital mammography and early adopters will have a familiar solution to work with. Hologic’s regulatory submission to the FDA relies on data from multicenter clinical tests showing that cancer is easier to be detected when interpreting a combination of 3D and 2D views than when looking at 2D images alone. Such combination will also decrease the recall rates.
