By Jane Luscombe
Finding cancer in dense breast tissue has been compared to looking for a snowball in a snow storm.
Both the dense tissue and the tumours appear white on a mammogram.
But Wellington-based company Matakina has developed breast imaging software that can analyse the pictures and indicate which ones need more investigation.
It should make cancer detection easier and more accurate.
It's being used in a trial in the Netherlands, where a million women a year are screened.
Auckland Breast Centre is the first place in New Zealand to buy the system, and it's already cut the number of unnecessary and expensive ultrasounds and MRIs.
One woman is diagnosed in New Zealand every three hours from breast cancer. The software will increase the number being diagnosed, but should help cut the death rate by catching the tumours early.
The imaging software is already part of a trial in the UK and is in use in the United States. The company is now eager to talk to health officials here to discuss whether it could become a part of the national screening programme.
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