Abstract

BACKGROUND Accurate measurement of breast mass size is fundamental for treatment planning. We evaluated performance of BreastLight apparatus in detection breast of masses with this in mind. MATERIALS AND METHODS From July 2011 to September 2013, a total of 500 women referred to mammography unit in Yazd, Iran for screening were recruited to this study. Performance of BreastLight in detection breast masses regard their sizeing, measured with clinical breast examination (CBE), mammography and sonography, was assessed. Sonographic and mammography examinations were performed according to breast density among women in two groups of women younger (n=105) and older (n=395) than 30 years. Size correlations were performed using Spearman rho analysis. Differences between mass size as assessed with the different methods (mammography, sonography, and clinical examination) and the BreastLight detection were analyzed using χ2-trend test. RESULTS Performance of the BreastLight in detection of lesions smaller than or equal to 1 cm assessed by CBE, mammography and sonography was 4.4%,7.7% and 12.5% and for masses larger than 4 cm was 65%, 100% and 57.1%, respectively. The performance of BreastLight in detection was significantly increased with larger masses (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that clinical measurement of breast cancer size is as accurate as that from mammography or ultrasound. Accuracy can be improved by the use of a simple formula of both clinical and mammographic measurements.