Device Enhances Detection of Breast Cancer
Radiologist Gordon Hixson was angry as well as sad when his family lost a friend to breast cancer four years ago.
If there had been a better way to detect the disease, his daughter’s kindergarten teacher might not have died in her early 40s, Hixson said.
After testing 75 prototypes, consulting mammography experts nationwide and investing $200,000 of his own money, Hixson created the MammoSpot.
The device is a diagnostic magnifier--a plastic stand easily attached to a mammography machine that brings the breast being X-rayed closer to the camera, spreads the tissue thinner for better clarity and targets a specific area.
The results are more accurate diagnosis of cancers or the elimination of unnecessary biopsies. It’s now being used by 400 medical and research centers worldwide.
Medical centers using Hixson’s device include Emory in Atlanta, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Yale University-New Haven in Connecticut.
“No woman should lose her life because cancer was not correctly diagnosed or detected,” Hixson said.
“But some doctors are quick to operate when abnormalities are found instead of doing follow-up testing,” he said. “No woman should go to surgery for a breast biopsy with only the standard two mammogram pictures.
“Only 25% of the time is cancer found when surgery is done. If good, quality work is done, the number of unnecessary surgeries could be reduced, and women who are diagnosed could benefit from better and earlier treatment.”
The MammoSpot nearly doubles the size of a mammographic image, reduces the patient’s radiation exposure by as much as a third and can detect cancer calcifications less than one-tenth of a millimeter in size, Hixson said.
“Magnification image quality with MammoSpot is superior to that produced by magnification devices supplied with the mammographic units which we use,” said Edward Sickles, a pioneer in the development of magnification mammography and chief of mammography at the University of California-San Francisco Hospital. “Our technologists find it extremely easy to use.”
Hixson, who practices at East Ridge Hospital, said statistics show that although mammograms are the best available early detection tool, they are not good enough to find all the problems. Traditional mammograms miss about 10% of breast cancers.
“A lot of patients have blind faith in their doctors,” Hixson said. “It’s important to have a good doctor-patient relationship, but women should question their doctors if they don’t think something isn’t right. A lot of women find their own cancer through self-examination, and they shouldn’t be afraid to ask for additional testing.”
He said mammograms are not very profitable, and it takes additional time to do special imaging of a breast. That’s why he made the MammoSpot easy for technicians to use.
Hixson patented his device and formed American Mammographics to manufacture and market the MammoSpot after mammogram machine manufacturers rejected his idea.
