Soheila Refahi - Tehran & Ardebil University of Medical Sciences
Zhaleh Behrouzkia - Tehran & Ardebil University of Medical Sciences
Gholamhassan Hadadi - Tehran & Ardebil University of Medical Sciences

Breast cancer is the most common female cancer with more than 45,000 cases diagnosed perannum in the UK. Early detection of breast cancer is associated with improved survival.There are several imaging modalities for assessment of the breast. Ability of these modalitiesfor detection mass of breast is different. Some mass will not be detected by any modality forvarious reasons, but some will be discovered by others. Although mammography is currentlyconsidered to be the gold standard technology for the diagnosis of breast cancer theperformance of this procedure is less in younger women and relates to the difficulty ofimaging dense breast tissue and film interpretation. For this reason, continual attempts arebeing made to develop new imaging techniques to replace or complement mammography.Focussed ultrasound can be very useful in determining the nature of an equivocal area, it isnot recommended for routine surveillance on its own in asymptomatic women. Magneticresonance imaging (MRI) of the breast has been shown to be highly effective in detectingearly breast cancer and is now recommended for routine use in screening specific high-riskgroups and for pre-treatment assessment of the breast in some patients with known breastcancer to assess tumour size and extent. However, as MRI is relatively expensive, requiresinjection of intravenous contrast medium, and is often not widely available, there remains thequest to find alternative non-invasive breast imaging techniques to use as an alternative toconventional techniques. Recent technological advances in infrared radiation detectiontogether with improved computer software have led to the development of the digital infraredthermal imaging (DITI) system. Preliminary reports from rodent models suggest that theincreased vascularization associated with early tumour development may be detected beforethere is mammographic evidence of an abnormality. In this review we explain specialcharacteristic for any modalities and differences between these imaging modalities.