Less Invasive Breast Cancer Screening Process

If you have ever had a breast biopsy....you know that it can be an uncomfortable procedure. Now there's a new device being tested that may one day be a less invasive way to tell women whether or not a lump on their breast is cancerous. Women receive a breast biopsy if doctors discover a lump when a routine mammogram is performed. To test the breast tissue for cancer, doctors must remove part of that tissue using a needle. Typical test results are available in 7 to 10 days. But the new device, which doesn't use radiation, looks like an ultrasound wand, and uses a combination of laser light and sound waves to generate images of the breast - instantly. Doctor Grobmyer stresses this technology is not designed to replace a screening mammogram… but if it becomes FDA approved, it could give doctors a new noninvasive tool in diagnosing a suspicious mass discovered by a mammogram or ultrasound. Two thousand women will be enrolled in the study and results are expected in 2016.