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Photo by Reed Hutchinson UCLA
Photographic Services
Lawrence Bassett, a national expert on breast screening,
hails the digital revolution for advances in imaging.
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fighting breast cancer
His vision, tech advances lead way
BY KIM IRWIN
UCLA Today
When Lawrence Bassett joined the UCLA faculty in 1975, mammogram
technology was in its infancy. The procedure was used only to diagnose
cancer in patients with breast abnormalities.
The images were grainy and difficult to interpret, and the news
they brought was often grim. Women were frequently diagnosed with
large tumors — sometimes three and four centimeters. Skin
retraction — the skin being pulled in by the tumor —
was not uncommon, and most patients had lymph-node involvement,
a sign the cancer was spreading. Survival rates were not good.
A lot has changed in 28 years. It’s rare today that Bassett
sees tumors as large as the ones he saw in the mid-1970s. Women
are being diagnosed with earlier-stage cancers, and their survival
rates are far better.
“It’s a different world now,” said Bassett,
the Iris Cantor Professor of Breast Imaging, a Jonsson Cancer Center
researcher and a national expert on breast screening. “It’s
still amazing to me that anyone could find anything on those early
mammograms compared to the images available today.”
And things could get better still. Bassett and others nationwide
are testing the latest in breast-screening technology — digital
mammography. The trial compares digital to standard mammography
for the detection of breast cancer.
Digital mammography uses computers and specially designed detectors
to produce an image that can be displayed and manipulated —
enlarged, magnified, lightened or darkened — on high-resolution
monitors. Digital mammograms also can be printed out on X-ray film
for easier comparison with conventional mammograms.
“This is the next step in the digital revolution,”
Bassett said. “Digital mammography has incredible potential
for improved image detail and contrast, and it eliminates the problems
with film — long processing times, having only one original
image to work from. We’re not limited. We can change the image.
We can store it electronically. We can send the mammogram somewhere
else within minutes.”
Bassett’s interest in radiology goes back to 1971, when
he began his residency in UCLA’s Department of Radiological
Sciences. In his mind — despite public debate about whether
screening mammography is an effective tool — there has never
been any question that women should undergo mammography.
“Nothing has gained more attention in recent years,”
he said. “And in the long run, mammography has been proven
to be effective.”
Still, it’s far from perfect because 15% of breast cancers
will not show up on a mammogram. But Bassett believes that mammography
remains the best way so far to detect cancer. And he’s certain
the study he’s participating in will lead to further advances.
“This is the future of mammography,” he said.
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