Professor Kim Sun-mi of the Department of Radiology at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH), has won the “Best Poster Award” at the Asian Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology 2024 (AFSUMB 2024), one of the world's most prestigious imaging and ultrasound medicine conferences.

Professor Kim was the only award-winner in the breast category for her poster, “Comparison Study of Breast Tomosynthesis and Standing Automated Breast Ultrasound for Breast Cancer Screening.”

Mammography is the most common method of breast screening, which involves standing with the breast compressed to take X-rays, exposing the patient to radiation and causing discomfort, including pain. Breast ultrasound, used as an adjunct to mammography, does not expose the patient to radiation. It is performed lying down, different from mammography. Due to different examination positions, the shape of the breast is different in the images, making it difficult to compare the two images directly.

In this study, Professor Kim found that standing automated mammography, a new breast cancer screening method, could detect various breast lesions compared to mammography. In addition, since the examination is performed in the same posture as mammography, it is easy to compare results that lead to the advantage of no radiation exposure, suggesting that it could be used in future breast cancer screening., the study showed.

“The significance of this study is that it provides evidence that the newly developed stand-up automated breast ultrasound can be helpful in breast cancer screening because it is easy to compare with mammography and can detect various lesions,” Professor Kim said. “In the future, we will continue to study more patients to confirm the diagnostic ability of breast cancer using stand-up automated ultrasound.”