Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine
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Purpose: Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor among women worldwide. Breast cancer is one of the few cancers that can be early detected, and the survival rate of the women whose breast cancers are detected on their initial stage is virtually 100%. At the present time, ultrasound (US) is the most important imaging test together with the mammogram for the diagnostic evaluation of the breast. Recent studies have shown that ultrasound, in addition to mammography, helps doctors to spot significantly more cancers compared with mammograms alone. This work intends to standardize the process of the US breast examination, the storage and marking of the US images and their subsequent visualization and comparison. Methods: It presents an innovative technique for the intraglandular mapping of breast cancer in a 3D scene. An anatomical based model of the breast is used for storage of the US images. Hardware equipment needed for the breast examination is described. Soft application programmed on Apple tools is fully described. The database for the storage is presented. Results: First clinical applications of the presented tool are reported. Currently, the system is being distributed free of charge to clinical personal in order to evaluate its benefits. Conclusions: A first version of an application to standardize the process of the US breast examination is presented. First reports show the feasibility of the system to be applied on clinics.