The Role of Compton Background and Breast Compression on Cancer Detection in Scintimammography

99mTc MIBI scintimammography is a sensitive and specific diagnostic technique for breast cancer detection when cancers more than 1 cm sized are considered. However the sensitivity falls in the case of submillimetric lesions. We developed a new Small Field of View, High Resolution Detector, able to image the breast in similar conditions of x-ray mammography: it allows the performance of Single Photon Emission Mammography (SPEM) studies. Seven patients with suspicion of malignant lesions were comparatively submitted to a Prone Scintimammography (PSM) by Anger camera and to a cranio-caudal view SPEM. The final diagnosis was reached by histopathology. Four malignant lesions were identified by SPEM but not by PSM, which that failed to image two submillimetric cancers. Both the cameras gave normal findings for benign lesions, confirming the high sensitivity of this technique. The results allow us to consider the SPEM camera as promising to improve scintimammographic sensitivity, even when small-sized tumors are examined.