Riverview Medical Center offering contrast-enhanced mammography improving breast cancer detection

Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center recently said it is now offering contrast-enhanced mammography, which is an emerging advanced technology that combines the exceptional high-resolution imaging of digital mammography and 3D mammography with functional imaging provided by contrast.

CEM is a fast and safe, diagnostic mammogram with contrast requiring no preauthorization, and can be completed in less than 15 minutes after consulting with a physician. Approved by the FDA more than a decade ago, this technology highlights areas of unusual blood flow patterns that can indicate malignancy.

Early studies of CEM in screening women with dense breasts have shown the potential benefit of CEM in the detection of breast cancer.

A CEM may be indicated:

• As an alternative to MRI for those unable to undergo MRI imaging due to claustrophobia, implanted metal devices, body habitus, inability to tolerate prone positioning, prior allergic reaction to gadolinium and insurance constraints;
• As a screening exam for those at intermediate or high risk for breast cancer, based on breast density, family and personal history of breast cancer, and prior high-risk biopsy results;
• As a problem-solving tool to resolve uncertain findings seen on a conventional mammogram;
• To determine the extent of disease in women diagnosed with breast cancer;
• To monitor response to treatment in women receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

“I am so proud to now be able to offer our patients this impactful technology, which is an alternative to MRI, and allows us to visualize abnormal tumor vascularity on a mammogram that otherwise would not be seen,” Dr. Harriet Borofsky, medical director of breast imaging, Riverview and Bayshore Medical Centers, said.

While seated in the mammography suite, an IV is started by a nurse and contrast, the same that is used in a CT scan, is administered intravenously. Two minutes after the injection, a dual energy mammogram, low-kV (standard mammogram) and high-kV (mammogram plus iodine) are obtained along with a computer-generated, recombined subtraction image that shows iodine enhancement only.