Advances in X-ray breast imaging using digital tomosynthesis

Breast cancer remains the most common cause of death for women below seventy years of age. In Europe, one in ten women develops this type of cancer in her lifetime, while in United States, it is the second leading cause of cancer death. Early diagnosis is recognised as a critical factor that improves the chance of survival. X-ray Mammography is considered the best practice for screening and early diagnosis. Despite technological advances that led to the introduction of digital mammography, screening and diagnosing remains a challenging task. Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) is a novel imaging technique that has the potential to extract additional diagnostic information in comparison to conventional mammographic images. In DBT, a limited number of projections are acquired over a limited angular range. The imaged volume is reconstructed from the two-dimensional projections and provides three-dimensional structural information of the breast. Recently, two commercial DBT products have been approved by FDA and placed on the market. This work addresses the most recent advances in x-ray breast imaging using this novel 3D imaging technique, to bring in focus small abnormalities and low contrast masses.