New screening tool for breast cancer

Southington (WTNH) - The latest screening tool for breast cancer is offered at just one facility in Connecticut.

It's called the breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) test and it is available at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in Southington.

Jane Cyr had a suspicious lump in her right breast.

"I've had two biopsies done on my breast already," Jane said.

After a mammogram and ultra-sound doctors still could not get a clear picture of what was going on.

"It's a very easy image to interpret, it's either there or not there," explained Dr. Jean Weigert, The Hospital of Central Connecticut.

The BSGI provides a physiological look at the breasts, but it does involve radiation.

"This is a low dose radio-isotope that is taken up specifically dividing cells in the breast," Dr. Weigert said.

It enables the doctors to view a cancerous area, especially in complicated cases.

"This area is abnormal on the BSGI and represented a finding that you can't see on mammography and you can't see in ultrasound," Dr. Weigert said.

For Jane, BSGI was the right option.

"I don't like MRIs," she said. "If there's anything there I want it caught now, not later, not when it is too late."

The BSGI is similar to mammography, with somewhat less discomfort.

"We put our breast on a plate as if we would in a mammogram. We can turn it in all sort of directions," Dr. Weigert explained. "We use a little bit of compression."

"It was practically almost the same, only its longer because they are taking more pictures," Jane said.

Dr. Weigert says the BSGI can be used for a variety of patients.

"The other patients important to the test are women that have very complicated mammograms, multiple cysts, multiple scars, women who've had implants with very dense breasts," she said.

However, Dr. Weigert is quick to point out that the BSGI is not a substitute for a mammogram.