OKC Mercy Hospital's New Contrast-Enhanced Mammography For Breast Cancer Detection

October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Oklahoma City doctors remind people that screenings are important to save lives. 

Mercy Hospital has a new machine adding another layer of protection, “We’ll be with them every step of the way,” said Dr. Melanie Pearce, director of breast imaging at Mercy. “I’ve been doing breast imaging since 2011.”  

“One of the difficult parts of my job is having to tell someone that they have breast cancer,” Pearce said. Difficult news to hear, but necessary information for survival. “I talk to the patient about the results and what the next steps are,” Pearce said. 

October is a reminder about the importance of breast cancer screenings. Pearce said the standard recommendation for the average woman is yearly mammograms starting at age 40. Mercy is changing with time to save time with certain screenings.    

“In addition to the mammogram, which is the gold standard, we might want to add something,” Pearce said. Mercy added a new tool. Pearce showed a scan of one patient’s breast. This patient would normally get an MRI after the normal mammogram. “The patient has a known breast cancer which was here,” she said. “This patient has a pacemaker, so she was unable to have a breast MRI.”  

That’s where contrast-enhanced spectral mammography comes in. “It’s much less expensive, it’s a faster study,” Pearce said. They saw the machine’s impact the first time they used it with this patient.  “What we didn’t know about was the small cancer that was in the other breast that would have gone unknown,” Pearce said. 

The machine helps doctors like Pearce see the bigger picture. Mammographer Stacey Garrett said it helps people feel comfortable. “And it’s quick. It’s a much quicker exposure,” Garrett said. “The quietness of the machine makes it a lot easier too.”  

The truth of a cancer diagnosis revealed in time can offer hope. “Sometimes just having an answer can be the most comforting thing,” Pearce said.