Digital mammography, a new type of mammography system, may help in early detection of breast cancer.

Learn more about mammograms

Digital mammography is the single biggest advance in mammography in 30 years, and women throughout Northeast Ohio now have access to this powerful new tool in the fight against breast cancer.

Digital mammography presents a number of benefits for the doctors, the hospitals, and, most importantly, the patients. For women in general, digital mammograms are as good as traditional film mammograms for diagnosing cancer, but significantly better for three groups of women:

• Women under age 50 (regardless of breast tissue density)
• Women with heterogeneously dense or extremely dense breast tissue (approximately 40 percent of patients)
• Premenopausal women and perimenopausal women (women who had a last menstrual period within 12 months of their mammograms)

Women getting mammograms will not feel any difference on the new machines. They look similar to previous units and the amount of compression is identical. For specialists who study these images for signs of cancer, the new system offers several advancements. The digital system provides better contrast resolution than film. Sharper images make for better detection of abnormalities in breast tissues in certain patients. Additionally, breast imaging doctors are assisted by computer-aided detection, where the computer automatically highlights potentially suspicious areas for doctors to examine more closely.

Mammography is the best screening tool available for breast cancer, and digital mammography has increased the detection rate of small cancers in a subset of patients.

University Hospitals is at the forefront of breast health care with the digital capabilities that we now have to offer. This upgrade in services is part of our continuing in the fight against breast cancer.