Comparing a Dedicated Breast Spectral CT Protocol With Standard MonoE40 Reconstruction for Breast Cancer Characterization and Opportunistic Assessment
- 1Radiology, Mermaid Beach Radiology, Gold Coast, AUS
Abstract
Breast malignancies can be difficult to assess on conventional imaging, particularly in patients with heterogeneous or dense breast tissue. We report the case of a woman in her early 70s with a biopsy-confirmed right breast malignancy who underwent contrast-enhanced spectral CT with both standard MonoE40 reconstruction and a dedicated breast spectral CT protocol. The dedicated reconstruction improved visualization of the primary lesion, associated dermal changes, ipsilateral axillary nodal abnormalities, and tumor vascularity, while also providing additional iodine-based enhancement information. These reconstructions were generated from the same CT acquisition and therefore required no additional radiation exposure or image acquisition. Subsequent surgical pathology confirmed locally advanced breast carcinoma with skin and regional nodal involvement, providing correlation with several of the imaging abnormalities. This case demonstrates the technical feasibility and qualitative added imaging information of dedicated breast spectral CT reconstruction in the assessment of a known breast malignancy undergoing preoperative staging.
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BibTeX
@article{padowitz2026comparing,
title = {{Comparing a Dedicated Breast Spectral CT Protocol With Standard MonoE40 Reconstruction for Breast Cancer Characterization and Opportunistic Assessment}},
author = {Ashton Padowitz and Zane Sherif and Kirralee Sherif and Amanda Winspear},
journal = {Cureus},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.7759/cureus.117243},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13722411},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Comparing a Dedicated Breast Spectral CT Protocol With Standard MonoE40 Reconstruction for Breast Cancer Characterization and Opportunistic Assessment
AU - Ashton Padowitz
AU - Zane Sherif
AU - Kirralee Sherif
AU - Amanda Winspear
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
JO - Cureus
DO - 10.7759/cureus.117243
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13722411
AB - Breast malignancies can be difficult to assess on conventional imaging, particularly in patients with heterogeneous or dense breast tissue. We report the case of a woman in her early 70s with a biopsy-confirmed right breast malignancy who underwent contrast-enhanced spectral CT with both standard MonoE40 reconstruction and a dedicated breast spectral CT protocol. The dedicated reconstruction improved visualization of the primary lesion, associated dermal changes, ipsilateral axillary nodal abnormalities, and tumor vascularity, while also providing additional iodine-based enhancement information. These reconstructions were generated from the same CT acquisition and therefore required no additional radiation exposure or image acquisition. Subsequent surgical pathology confirmed locally advanced breast carcinoma with skin and regional nodal involvement, providing correlation with several of the imaging abnormalities. This case demonstrates the technical feasibility and qualitative added imaging information of dedicated breast spectral CT reconstruction in the assessment of a known breast malignancy undergoing preoperative staging.
SN - 2168-8184
ER -