Greg Frieherr

They are supposed to be the standard bearers of the body’s defense against disease. But when it comes to cancer, some macrophages are traitors, helping rather than fighting the enemy. They attach to metastatic tumor cells, as they do to other threats. But rather than destroying metastatic cells, these macrophages enable their growth.

For every 1000 women aged 40 to 74 years who participated in screening, 3.9 diagnosed with breast cancer died compared with 5.0 among those who did not participate. The absolute benefit in terms of reduced deaths due to mammography screening, therefore, is about one in 1000.

Small field of view positron imaging, optimized for breast cancer, is jockeying for position among several adjuncts to x-ray mammography. A proponent of the technology, Kathy Schilling, MD, believes it has an edge over MRI.