Oct 14, 2008 10:19 am US/Eastern
US Breast Cancer Technology Helps Doctors Overseas
BOSTON (CBS) ―
They come from different cultures and live half a world apart, but doctors from China and Boston have joined together in the battle against breast cancer, reports CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston.
Two doctors from Ruijing Hospital, a teaching facility in Shanghai, traveled to Boston over the weekend to see the latest technology in breast cancer detection. The disease has increased 30 to 40 percent in China over the past decade.
"The patients of breast cancer, the ages are very young, much younger than here in the United States." said Dr Dengpin Wang.
Dr. Elsie Levin, director of the Faulkner-Sagoff Breast Centre at Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain demonstrated for her Chinese counterparts the Aurora dedicated breast MRI machine. It allows doctors to detect cancer in some patients before it would appear in a routine mammogram.
"I think particularly for screening high risk patients, I find cancers routinely that we don't see on the mammogram." she said. "When we catch it at an earlier stage there's no reason to think that they wouldn't do as well as an early stage breast cancer patient who was diagnosed with conventional methods."
Learn: Self Breast Exam
The Faulkner-Sagoff MRI system was created by a North Andover company, Aurora Imaging Technology. The company CEO Olivia Cheng is from Taiwan, where they already use the dedicated breast MRI technology, but the Shanghai doctors say they've never seen it before.
"Breast cancer is on the rise not only in U.S., but in Asia too." said Cheng. "They're becoming now the number one killer of women in China so obviously they wanted to find best way to tackle it."
Each machine costs $1.5 million. Wang is hoping he can bring the technology back to his country to help save lives.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Click here to find out more.
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