Early Detection: New grant will help U of A Health Sciences fine-tune latest tool for screening breast cancer

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Numbers from groups like the National Cancer Institute tell us close to 1 in 8 women in the U.S. will get breast cancer in their lives.

Now, thanks to millions of dollars in federal grant money from the NCI, a research team at University of Arizona Health Sciences can fine-tune their cutting-edge research, and determine if a new tool could one day become a better option to screen for breast cancer, compared to a mammogram.

Srinivasan Vedantham, a U of A College of Medicine professor, has worked as a biomedical engineer for years. At one point in his career, he designed an alternative to the standard cancer screening tool doctors have used for decades.

Vedantham points to studies in countries with national health services, like the United Kingdom, where women surveyed admit they skip regular screenings because of that pain.

"There is a risk that women don't come back for mammography screening as often as they should, because of the compression associated pain and discomfort," Vedantham said.

"We realized that we have to figure out a way, 'how can we do compression-free imaging and get to fully 3D imaging?'"

KGUN9 met Vedantham at a Banner-University Medicine imaging center on Campbell and asked him to explain how the prototype CT scanner works.

"We have a prone table, and women go up a couple of steps. We image one breast at a time — there's no positioning, manipulating. We have an x-ray tube and a detector that spins around and acquires, several-hundred low does projections," he said.

Vedantham and the research team have reason to be optimistic.

So far, they have had 92 women try the prototype in a past study; and on top of the participants saying it was a less painful experience, Vedantham also said the time it took to test the patients, from walking in the room to walking out, was no more than 4 minutes.

NCI, through the National Institutes of Health, granted the U of A researchers $3.3 million to keep testing this scanner. Vedantham says he personally wants to focus on how accurate these images can truly be, to help oncologists with treatment plans and assure women it's the best thing they can do for their own health and peace of mind.

"Over the years, we've been stuck in the 65-67% range in terms of women participating in regular screening," Vedantham said. "If we can push this needle a little bit, more the 70-75% range — you're talking about early detection and hundreds of thousands that could benefit."

The research team hopes to recruit around 600 women to join the study, which they plan to start January 2025. Vedantham also said the team is particularly interested in helping women with denser breast tissue, because it can make it harder to spot a lingering tumor.

The official trial signup is not fully on line yet, but KGUN9 will continue to follow the researchers' work over the course of next year.