Frequently Asked Questions

For 20 years, Dr. Kelly was the Director of Breast Imaging at Huntington Memorial Hospital and The Hill Breast Center (now Huntington Hill Breast Center), in Pasadena, CA. Having reviewed over ¼ million mammograms, he sought to improve the available screening tools in order to detect cancer in dense breast tissue at its earliest stage. Mammography’s x-rays cannot effectively penetrate dense breast tissue or implants. This limits early detection of cancer. Previously, no standardized tool could reliably detect cancer between 5-10mm in women with dense breasts or implants, or screen 100% of the breast tissue in any woman.

AWBUS is Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound Screening! It’s a screening “System” designed specifically for the detection of breast cancers under10mm in women with dense breasts or implants … in other words, when cancers are small and easily treatable. AWBUS does not replace mammography because some cancers begin as small calcifications, which are more easily found by mammography.

SonoCine gives the radiologist the best chance to spot suspicious cancerous or pre-cancerous growths because it’s the only standardized, ultrasound screening that captures 100% of a woman’s breast tissue. Every exam is performed at the same speed, using the same pattern. 100% of the breast tissue is recorded and a radiologist, who is a medical doctor, reviews the exam in an environment with minimal or no distractions.

A radiologist is a medical doctor trained to read mammograms, ultrasounds and MRIs. Radiologists are very good at analyzing information presented to them. More often than not, however, a technologist (who is not a doctor) performs handheld ultrasound screening exams. In this case, you are dependent on someone who is not an MD to determine whether or not certain area are suspicious, photograph those areas, and then show those photographs to the radiologist for review.

Again, radiologists are medical doctors trained to read mammograms, ultrasounds and MRIs. However, mammograms are very limited in their ability to show small cancers in dense tissue or in tissue blocked by implants. If radiologists don’t have a clear image, or some of the information is missing, then their diagnosis is based on incomplete information.

A mammogram is a standardized method of breast screening, which uses x-ray technology. It is always administered the same way, ensuring that radiologists are familiar with what they are reading. The technologist captures photos of the breast and gives them to the radiologist to read in a quiet room with minimal distractions.

1. It cannot visually penetrate dense tissue.
2. It cannot visually penetrate dense implants.
3. It does not reach some areas under the arms, top of the chest, and between the breasts.
4. It is uncomfortable.

1. Women get screened!
2. It works very well in fatty tissue (cancer has no fat and is much easier to distinguish in fatty tissue).
3. It identifies some of the cancers in dense breasts.
4. It tells women their breast type – fatty or dense.
5. It finds calcifications better than any other screening modality. 
6. Calcifications, which can be slow growing cancers, account for approximately 10-15% of breast cancers.
7. Mammography is usually covered by insurance.

Yes! Using SonoCiné, one clinic found 6 cancers missed by mammography in 500 women with dense breasts. The “normal” rate for finding a cancer in women with dense breasts is 3 per 1000. Women with dense breasts account for roughly 70% of cancers, which is why these women need to supplement their mammogram with SonoCiné.

Another clinic in Scottsdale, AZ found 8 cancers, which averaged ¼ inch (6mm). These cancers were not seen by mammography.

That sounds weird, but if you find a cancer when it’s small, it’s very simple. Just
take it out before it has a chance to grow into a big cancer. In the following years your radiologist will find less cancers if he or she uses SonoCiné, because cancers that would have been missed will have already been found very early and removed. If they do reemerge, they can be identified again at their earliest stages, removed and then treated with radiation. With today’s technology there is no reason that small cancers should grow to be big cancers!

Because the x-rays from the mammogram can’t pass through dense tissue, thus creating an image that looks white. It’s white because the stopping power of the dense tissue is equivalent to the stopping power of cancers. Fatty tissue is easy for x-rays to penetrate and appears black -almost, translucent, and it’s easy to see a small white spot that may be cancer in fatty tissue.
This also applies to implants.

How handheld is done is entirely dependent on the individual technologist. This is due to the fact they are not trained in the use of any standardized method. There is absolutely no established standard for speed or motion in handheld screening when trying to detect unknown cancers. Techs are trained to scan lesions that they already know exist. They are not trained to detect cancers whose presence is unknown.

No. In general, doctors do not conduct these exams – in which case they review just those areas of interest that were noticed by the tech. And, again, your tech is not a medical doctor.

Radiologists typically review mammograms. However, they do not see patients unless a possible abnormality has been detected.

SonoCiné is designed to “SCREEN” for small cancers. Handheld ultrasound was not designed to be a screening tool, but, rather, a diagnostic tool.

If a woman has dense breasts or implants and lacks accessibility to SonoCiné, handheld ultrasound is better than nothing, and is more effective than mammography alone in detecting cancers in these women.

In my opinion, handheld ultrasound may be considerably less effective than SonoCiné in screening for cancer in women with dense tissue or implants. Some additional detection is better than none, so if SonoCiné is not available in your area and you have dense breasts or implants, I recommend you do handheld.

• Death occurs in less than 1% of a screened population.
• Less than10% of women whose cancers are found 10mm or smaller will require radiation or chemotherapy.
• When cancers over 10mm are detected, survival rates decrease significantly.

Yes, but none of the others rival SonoCiné. There are no published, peer-reviewed studies from the other systems showing increased detection of cancers 10 mm or less.

SonoCiné is the only system that captures 100% of breast tissue. Others do not, which is why we are the only company that can claim to be “Automated WHOLE BREAST Ultrasound Screening”.

Thermography is a flawed technology. The reason is that the smaller the cancer, the less heat the cancer cells emit. When the cancer is small, the minimal thermal energy emitted is not enough to be detected until the cancer grows almost large enough to be felt.