Ultrasound evaluation of breast lesions.

New technology, in combination with mammography, may help doctors determine more accurately which breast lumps require a biopsy to learn if they are cancerous and which most likely are benign. Radiologists who have studied the use of high-resolution, digital ultrasound to evaluate breast lumps, hope that the number of unnecessary breast biopsies can be cut in half.

A study involving more than 1,000 patients at 14 breast centers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe evaluated the use of high-resolution ultrasound to characterize abnormalities found by mammography The patients in the study had abnormal mammograms and were scheduled for breast biopsy. Ultrasound was performed, and the researchers graded the level of suspicion of malignancy on a scale from one to five. They then compared the accuracy of mammography alone to mammography plus ultrasound in predicting which lumps were...