Demonstration of the superiority of digital breast tomosynthesis over 2D mammography through a series of sophisticated computational breast phantoms — a preliminary Monte Carlo study

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a 3D breast imaging technique that has the potential of replacing the existing 2D techniques. DBT reconstructs the 3D images from limited number of projection angles and each image slice removes the overlying tissues that obstruct the detection of small tumours and microcalcifications. In this study, we compared DBT and its 2D counterpart using the Monte Carlo method with DeBRa, an advanced computational breast model. DeBRa was modeled in MCNPX together with a hypothetical DBT system of W/Al+Ag x-ray source/filter combination and a-Se detector. Simulation results show consistently that DBT allows detection of smaller tumours and smaller microcalcifications than the 2D images. This lays the basis for further large scale simulation studies with more variability in the breast model and in the system configurations.