Alternative Breast-Imaging Approaches

Although conventional breast-imaging techniques routinely include mammography and ultrasound, growing interest in other approaches, perhaps most notably MR imaging, has drawn increasing attention to exploiting the anatomic and physiologic basis for understanding breast cancer. Nuclear medicine techniques have been applied in several circumstances with the intent of approaching or defining a role for molecular imaging, exemplified by the use of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose and positron emission tomography. Other techniques, including exploitation of additional components of the electromagnetic spectrum, have provided novel concepts that may ripen into clinical use.