Advanced 3D models improve breast cancer detection

An EU-funded project is developing advanced three-dimensional computational and physical models of breast tumours, providing the medical community with powerful new instruments to tackle breast cancer. The initiative will reveal the possibilities for improved diagnostic techniques for detecting a disease that affects one in eight women in Europe at some point in their lives.The research, conducted in the ongoing MAXIMA project, focuses in particular on enhancing procedures and technologies to detect small and irregular-shaped tumours in dense breast tissue, which are not easy to diagnose using standard breast-cancer-screening techniques. These hidden, early-stage tumours are especially dangerous: diagnosing them early can greatly improve a cancer patient’s chances of recovery and survival.