A technique called molecular breast imaging (MBI) is highly sensitive in detecting small lesions and can also spot tumors missed by mammography and ultrasound, researchers report.The results with the first 100 patients are “just staggering,” Dr. Deborah J. Rhodes of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, told Reuters Health. “This technique really has many, many implications and many potential applications, but we certainly need further studies."The detection system involves injection of a standard short-lived isotope, which is taken up in breast tissue and preferentially by tumors. The team built a gamma camera specifically designed to pick up the isotope signal and image the breast.
