I tell people to think of this like a marble in a
bowl of Jello-- you can compress the Jello, but the
marble won't compress or change size.
Richard G. Barr, MD

Elasticity breast imaging. Doesn't sound like a test at which aging women would excel.

Elasticty ultrasound, however, may be an up and coming way to evaluate suspicious breast lesions. If the results of a study of 80 women are confirmed in larger samples, this test may some day significantly reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies.

The new technology measures the movement of tissue, and malignant tissue just doesn't wiggle like a bra-ful of jelly. In the small series of 80 women with suspect breast lesions, the elasticity ultrasound correctly identified 100% of the cancerous tumors and was 99% specific in identifying only cancers and not benign growths.