Dense breast tissue has more glandular and fibrous tissue than fatty tissue, making it harder to detect abnormalities on mammograms. Credit: ORION PRODUCTION via Shutterstock.

Medical device company QT Imaging Holdings has announced positive data demonstrating that its Breast Acoustic CT scan imaging technique can be used as a potential alternative to mammography for breast cancer screening of women with dense breasts or who are young. 

The study, published in the Academic Radiology journal, involved 24 radiologists following 177 breast cancer cases. The area under the curve (AUC) result demonstrated that QTI’s Breast Acoustic CT is as good as 3D mammography in detecting breast lesions.

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The technology is just as effective in spotting breast problems, especially benign ones such as cysts, which can help reduce the number of unnecessary recalls for further tests. Quantitative transmission (QT) can be a potential alternative to mammography for breast cancer screening of women too young to undergo mammography. 

The QTI Breast Acoustic CT system is a QT imaging technique that provides quantitative information about tissue composition and density. It uses advanced algorithms to analyse transmission images obtained from existing imaging modalities such as CT scans. The system is especially appropriate for dense breasts and young women who have risk factors. 

Mammography, the gold standard of breast cancer screening, uses X-rays to diagnose and locate tumours of the breasts. Dense breast tissue has more glandular and fibrous tissue than fatty tissue, making it harder to detect abnormalities on mammograms. This can increase the risk of missing small tumours, potentially delaying the diagnosis of breast cancer. Dense breast tissue is more common in younger women, typically under 40 years of age, but it can also occur in women of any age with factors like genetics and hormone levels playing a role.  

In the announcement accompanying the data, QTI’s chief scientific officer Bilal Milak said: “We are encouraged by the consistently high performance of QTI’s technology, especially in women with dense breasts.  

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“Along with the previously published results and from a comparison of QTI’s scans with mammography, these trial results will be valuable for our planned FDA submission for a screening indication in younger women identified with above-average risk for developing breast cancer and who have not yet reached the age for conventional mammography-based screening.” 

In June 2023, QTI teamed up with the Dr Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research for a Phase II study of the QTscan 3D breast imaging system, which uses a fully automated segmentation, machine learning‐based method to quantitatively assess fibroglandular volumes (FGV), allowing clinicians to determine breast cancer risk and determine response to different treatments.