Improved determination of breast cancer size in mammography

Abstract

Breast cancer size determination in a preoperative stage is of great importance, as it is taking into account the classification of the tumour. In this paper a simple method of the improved determination of the actual tumour size is presented. The method is based on the calculation of correction factors taking into account the magnification of the tumour image during the mammographic examination. The method was applied for evaluation on forty cases of breast cancer. In all cases the final approximation of tumour maximum diameter with the presented method is almost equal to this obtained from the pathologists’ reports. The possibility of wrong stage characterisation of a tumour, which is a problem arising from the measurement of the maximum diameter directly from the mammogram, is also minimised, especially in case that tumour size is between two stages.