Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 13, 1993 TAG: 9304130131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE TENNANT LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
PAINLESS BREAST EXAMS?
It's a far cry from outer space, but NASA Langley is helping a medical company make breast exams painless, using ultrasound designed to find tiny flaws in airplanes and spacecraft.NASA advisers working with private researchers hope it could lead to early detection of breast cancer without the radiation and discomfort of mammograms. Low-frequency ultrasound is commonly used during pregnancy to examine the developing fetus, but it is seldom used in breast cancer screening now, because it produces such a poor picture in thick tissue.
Through a program designed to adapt NASA's aerospace technology for the greater public good, researchers are experimenting with high-frequency ultrasound to get a good, clear picture inside the breast.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and it is becoming more prevalent. It is estimated that 1993 will see 182,000 new patients and 46,000 deaths.
Mammograms are recommended for routine screening by many doctors, but some studies question whether the radiation contributes to some breast cancers. For some patients they can also be painful because the breast must be compressed in the machine. Ultrasound, by contrast, is usually painless because a hand-held instrument just touches the skin.
If the research succeeds, ultrasound could ultimately reduce the use of mammograms.
"It's what everybody is looking for," said George J. Stasen, chief executive officer of Supra Medical Corp.
The company sought NASA's help in the early 1980s after a chance meeting between a Langley physicist and a Supra researcher at a Washington, D.C., conference. The idle chitchat during the social hour dealt with computerized ultrasound imaging of burns, and the two discovered they had a lot in common.
NASA shares its expertise with the private sector, so the public gets an added dividend from space research. The space agency's first sharing of its technology resulted in grooved highways that keep cars from skidding in the rain.
Now Supra has an agreement with NASA to place two researchers at Langley Research Center to work with a senior physicist. They hope to produce a machine that could ultimately be marketed to guide biopsy needles or even diagnose tumors by simply sending sound waves into the breast that would echo off lumps.
An earlier pairing of Supra and NASA produced an ultrasound machine that can tell the difference between second- and third-degree burns. The company hopes to adapt that machine to read breast tumors.
"Radiation is dangerous and mammography is brutal," Stasen said. "What distinguishes our work from the work of any number of giant companies is that our particular ultrasound interest is in the high-frequency range.
"When you go up in frequency, you get excellent resolution. You can see very tiny artifacts. The price you pay is you don't get the depth you want."
Breast surgeon Dr. Claire Carmen of Norfolk said she uses ultrasound on some patients to determine whether a lump is a fluid-filled cyst or a solid mass. But ultrasound will not replace mammography as a screening tool to discover tumors unless the picture it produces improves greatly, she said.
"I think that may be technology that will get better and better, but it's not going to replace mammography yet," she said.
The level of discomfort felt during mammograms depends on the patient's tolerance, the timing of her menstrual cycle and the size of the breast, she explained. And, she said, people are exposed to more background radiation from the Earth than from mammograms.
NASA developed its ultrasound to look for cracks in airplane and spacecraft materials. But in that form, it wasn't useful to the medical industry and it wasn't easy enough for doctors to use.
Supra's work to develop the software, increase the depth of the scan and interpret the signals will take time, said NASA physicist William T. Yost. Developing the burn scanner from NASA technology took about eight years, and work on the breast scanner just began in October.