MedStar Health Offers Newest Advancement in Diagnostic Breast Imaging with Contrast Enhanced Mammography

MedStar Union Memorial Hospital leads critical evolution of breast imaging with contrast enhanced mammography.

BALTIMORE— MedStar Health has advanced the evolution of diagnosing breast cancer by now offering contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) for the first time in the system, to women needing imaging beyond a mammogram. The most advanced technology available, CEM was administered to three women at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in late September, as part of their diagnostic breast imaging work up.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the U.S. One in eight will face a breast cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, and regular mammograms have been recommended for decades as the best way to find it. But according to the National Cancer Institute, nearly half of American women have dense breast tissue, reducing the effectiveness of mammograms, and making early diagnosis more challenging.

“The challenge of interpreting mammograms is that breast tissue is white and breast cancer is also white,” said Dr. Michelle Townsend Day, chair of radiology at MedStar Union Memorial and MedStar Good Samaritan Hospitals. “The addition of contrast enhanced mammography to the suite of breast imaging offerings, gives the radiologist yet another way to detect an underlying cancer which can be hidden by breast tissue.”

Patients having CEM receive an IV with contrast, the same agent used during a computed tomography, or CT scan, in combination with a standard digital mammogram. The contrast flows into the breast tissue during the mammogram to detect areas of increased blood flow.

In September 2024 the Food and Drug Administration began requiring mammogram reports to include a breast density assessment and to notify patients.

“Patients with dense breasts should speak with their provider about whether they recommend additional imaging like CEM or breast MRI,” said Dr. Day.

Contrast enhanced mammography can also be used in certain clinic settings as an alternative to breast MRI.