Diaphanography in the diagnosis of breast cancer.

In diaphanography, a light source is applied to the breast to visualize lesions through a television camera sensitive to infrared light. Diaphanography and mammography were performed on 1,476 patients in a screening population. Twenty-six cancers in 24 patients were confirmed by biopsy; detection rates were 96% for mammography, 58% for diaphanography, and 62% for physical examination. Mammography was significantly more sensitive than either diaphanography or physical examination (p less than 0.005). Mammography detected 10 cancers that were missed at physical examination, whereas diaphanography detected five such lesions. It is concluded that diaphanography does not satisfy the criteria of a screening procedure, but because the examination is completely innocuous, it may serve as an adjunct to physical examination. In addition, the authors developed a breast model for diaphanography that appears to correlate with the human breast and demonstrates some of the physics and limitations of diaphanography.