Researchers have developed a new imaging technique for capturing subtle differences between benign and malignant breast tumors. The approach described in this month Nature Medicine could provide physicians with the first non-invasive method for the diagnosis of breast tumor types.
Doctors rely on mammograms and biopsies to track breast tumors. Because mammograms are unable to distinguish most benign and malignant tumors, surgical biopsies are used to retrieve a sample of tissue to reveal the type of tumor. Biopsies, however, can hurt.
MRI Hoping to find a less painful way to probe the nature of a tumor, Hadassa Degani, a clinician at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, combined with a non-toxic compound called GdDTPA, which serves as a contrast agent for MRI because it resonates at a distinct frequency. The group Degani first tried the technique on mice with transplanted human breast tumors. After imaging a tumor, Degani injected a mouse with GdDTPA, was then performed analyzes 3.5 and 12 minutes later. Using a computer to the color code of the speed at which GdDTPA entered in tumors, Degani found that the chemical infiltrated malignant tumors much faster than it was benign tumors. His team noted a similar trend in 18 people with benign or malignant breast tumors.
The technique appears to be "extremely sensitive," said Faina Shtern, associate director of research and technology at the office of the Public Health Service of the United States of Women's Health. If the work passes muster after being tested in more patients, Shtern said, it could reduce the huge number of breast biopsies on women whose tumors are found to be benign or those with false dark spots on their mammograms.
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