PRELIMINARY-RESULTS FOR POSITRON EMISSION MAMMOGRAPHY - REAL-TIME FUNCTIONAL BREAST IMAGING IN A CONVENTIONAL MAMMOGRAPHY GANTRY

In order to optimally integrate radiotracer breast imaging within the breast clinic, anatomy and pathology should be easily correlated with functional nuclear medicine breast images. As a first step in the deve lopment of a hybrid functional/anatomic breast imaging platform with b iopsy capability, a conventional X-ray mammography gantry was modified to image the compressed breast with positron emitters. Phantom studie s with the positron emission mammography (PEM) device showed that a 1- cc hot spot could be detected within 5 min. A preliminary clinical tri al demonstrated in vivo visualization of primary breast: cancer within 4 min. For sites where positron-emitting radionuclides are available, PEM promises to achieve low-cost directed functional examination of b reast abnormalities, with the potential for achieving X-ray correlatio n and image-guided biopsy.