Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed non-cutaneous cancer among women. Only lung cancer is responsible for more deaths among women in the United States. However, the survival rate for women with localized breast cancer has increased from 80% in the 1950s to 98% today.

Only 5-10% of breast cancers are due to heredity. The majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no known significant family history or other known risk factors.

Breast cancer among men is increasing and more than 2,000 men will be diagnosed this year. While African American women are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, they are more likely to die from the disease.

The most proven and significant risk factors for getting breast cancer are being female and getting older. The median age at the time of diagnosis is 61 years old.

The Challenge of Dense Breast Tissue

The most widely accepted breast-screening procedure today is X-ray based film/screen and/or full field digital mammography. However, despite the proven benefits of mammography, visualization of cancers in dense breast tissue through the use of mammography is limited, resulting in missed cancers or in the discovery of later stage cancers. Some 40% of women in Europe and the U.S have some amount of dense breast tissue. In Asia, the numbers rise to 60-70%. Breast cancer risk can be 4-6 times higher for women with significant breast densities compared to women with no dense structures. 

Below is an example of a breast cancer in a woman with fatty breast tissue (non-dense). The white tumor in the left breast (Lt MLO) is easy to visualize against the dark gray and black fatty tissue.

Comparatively, the mammogram below is from a woman with dense breast tissue. The dense tissue appears white, just like a tumor would appear, making breast cancers difficult for a radiologist to identify. This is why up to 50% of breast cancers are missed by mammography in women with dense breasts.

U-Systems ABUS technology is designed to be an effective solution to the clinical problem of dense breast tissue. With a 3D ultrasound volume and U-Systems software, the radiologist can quickly look through hundreds of breast tissue image "slices", virtually peeling back the layers of dense tissue to find breast cancers which may have been hidden by that dense tissue on the mammogram.

A single Coronal slice from an ABUS exam of a patient with dense breast tissue and normal mammography. The nipple is marked in yellow and the tumor, which resembles a black hole on ultrasound, is visible in the eleven o'clock position (11:00) of the image. Because of the increased breast density, this tumor was not visible on mammography.