Molecular imaging for supplemental breast screening

If you are one of the millions of women identified as having dense breasts, your health care team may recommend supplemental screening to check your breasts for cancer.

Dr. Kristin Robinson, a breast radiologist at Mayo Clinic, recommends working with your health care team to determine which supplemental screening is right for you.

One option is molecular breast imaging (MBI). Done in addition to a mammogram, it uses a radioactive tracer that can identify cancer cells. A Mayo Clinic study shows that MBI is more effective than mammography alone for women with dense breasts.

“The dense tissue on a mammogram looks white, and cancer looks white, so you can imagine if we’re trying to find a small breast cancer in a sea of white breast tissue, it can be very difficult,” Robinson said.

— MAYO CLINIC NEWS NETWORK