Fibroglandular Tissue Distribution in Compressed Breasts for a New Breast Dosimetry Model

X-ray mammography remains the worldwide primary screening method for early breast cancer detection in millions of women. Being an x-ray examination, there is a risk, albeit small, of radiation-induced carcinogenesis. Thus, it is necessary to provide an accurate dose evaluation for optimization and assessment of screening. Currently, the dose metric used in mammography is the average glandular dose. This quantity estimates the amount of radiation dose absorbed by the fibroglandular tissue, which is considered the radiosensitive tissue in the breast. Recent studies have shown that current models tend to overestimate patient dose by up to 30% due to the assumption that fibroglandular tissue is uniformly distributed within the breast [2,3]. Therefore, new breast models based on non-uniform tissue distribution are encouraged. Consequently, the goal of this work is to provide an accurate characterization of fibroglandular tissue distribution in compressed breast to aid the development of a new, accurate breast models for universal dosimetry evaluations.