Mammograms are largely considered the gold standard for detecting breast cancer malignancies, but the pain and discomfort that comes with having your breasts pushed up against a traditional scan machine has been documented as a serious deterrent for women considering and getting routine examinations.
But what if there was a mammogram that came with no pain—and more thorough results than a traditional screening?
Cue the Vera Scan.
This first-of-its-kind breast scan rotates around the breast, instead of compressing it, and has the capabilities of capturing the smallest lesions for early and accurate diagnosis.
Bedford Breast Center in Beverly Hills, California, is opening their doors later this week and offering guests a first look at the new technology. Flow Space spoke with one of their breast cancer surgeons, Dr. Heather Richardson, FACS to learn more.
How does the Vera Scan work?
The Vera Scan is a state-of-the-art breast imaging machine that gives doctors a detailed, 3D view of the breast tissue using CT technology (a combination of X-rays and computer tech). Unlike traditional mammograms, where you would stand and have your breast compressed into a machine in a variety of ways, this scan involves no smooshing and no pain.
Before the exam, like with a traditional mammogram, you will be given a gown, brought to a private room where you’ll remove your clothing from the waist up, and any necklaces or glasses. You then will lay stomach side down onto the imaging table with a depression or hole in the center of the table where one breast will naturally fall into. The scan will then take place.
The scanning process takes high-res images of your breast from various angles without any direct contact to your body. There are no loud sounds or vibrations, and someone with implants can safely have a mammogram with this machine.
“The Vera Scan machine runs for 10 to 12 seconds, but it’s only capturing an image of the breast for seven of those seconds while you’re hearing the machine run,” Richardson explains. “Scanning both breasts takes less than five minutes total. If we choose to use a contrasted image, which I find to be very advantageous, the whole process takes less than 10 minutes. I personally had a contrasted scan last week. It was 8 minutes and 38 seconds from walking in the door to walking out of the door.”
Most centers do not give immediate feedback, or offer same day reads for a screening mammogram. If you have a specific complaint or specific area that is being addressed, which is called a diagnostic study, then the radiologist does generally give immediate feedback in that situation.
“At Bedford Breast Center, we do try to give people information on the same day, but it may not be a formal, final reading interpretation from the board-certified radiologist,” Richardson adds. “But we do try to take a look and address any obvious findings in the moment, if we can.”
The benefits of the Vera Scan
In the same way that a CAT scan of the chest is very different from a chest X-ray, this CT scan of the breast provides far more information and insight about what’s going on in the breast tissue compared to a traditional mammogram.
It is also produces a true 3D image, in which doctors can virtually see inside the breast tissue pattern and look at it as if they were looking at a model of the inside of the breast.
“MRI images that use contrast tend to see a lot of additional areas of blood flow that typically end up being healthy and non-cancerous,” Richardson says. “This can make for a very complicated image with so much to look at. It’s also very anxiety provoking for patients to be told ‘we see something,’ but with this Vera Scan, the threshold for what enhances or shows blood flow patterns appears to be higher and more specific.”
Studies have also shown that the contrasted Vera Scan and an MRI appear to be able to capture cancer at the same rates, but the false positives or areas that are flagged by the study appeared to be far fewer with the Vera Scan than with an MRI, Richardson adds.
Another major benefit of the Vera Scan is its ability to increase the detection of Stage 1 breast cancer, which has a 98% cure rate. By catching cancers earlier, the Vera Scan plays a crucial role in early intervention and better outcomes.
“I have a lot of confidence in this test,” Richardson says. “Right now, if this test says it doesn’t see anything in the breast tissue, I feel that I don’t have any better way to tell someone that they are cancer-free.”
What this means for the future of mammograms
As more women are demanding pain-free mammograms and more precise detection, screenings like the one that the Vera Scan offers will likely only increase.
“I see women demanding assurance that cancer isn’t being missed in their dense breasts,” Richardson says. “I see high-risk patients struggling with the feeling that they have to have prophylactic surgeries because they’re concerned about detection and have anxiety about being called back again and again. I see them having relief from that with this test.”
In addition to more clear detection, the Vera Scan can see calcium deposits and provides the same quality scan of a natural breast as it does breast implants. It also has the ability to detect cancers that traditional mammograms struggle to catch.
“We have also already encountered a patient who had two areas of invasive lobular cancer that we were not expecting to be appreciated,” Richardson said. “Lobular cancer, in particular, is notoriously difficult to detect. I was incredibly impressed with this contrasted Vera Scan test, and that case sold me. I was hopeful that it would deliver my expectations, and thus far it’s exceeding them. It’s pretty much a love affair with this technology for me at this point.”
The Vera Scan is currently only offered in a select number of clinics, including Community Radiology in New York City, Brookwood Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, Arkansas Heart Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, and of course, the Bedford Breast Center in Beverly Hills. Find out if there’s a Vera Scan near you—this map charts all of the locations currently using the new technology. For more information about Bedford Breast Center or to schedule your own Vera Scan in Beverly Hills, you can visit their website here.