Breast compression: a preliminary study.

X-Ray mammography is the technique employed to image breast tumours; it is the gold standard for both diagnosis and screening. To increase the sensitivity of the test and to reduce the dose of X-radiation, breast compression is used. The effect of squeezing a simple model of a breast in which there is an idealized spherical tumour volume is investigated; the cases where the lesion has both a smaller, and a larger compressibility than the surrounding tissues are considered. Surface strain is computed as a function of the deformation of the lesion from its spherical shape. Evidence from earlier studies is adduced to show that when the lesion is malignant care should be exercised to avoid the possibility of disseminating cancer cells by the application of compressive forces.