A Word From Koning’s Co-Chief Medical Officer During Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month—a time for many to reflect. But for those of us in the fight every day, it’s more than just a month. It's our daily reality, whether we're at work or at home, reviewing the patients we’ve seen and the challenges they face.

You’ve likely heard the ongoing conversations about breast tissue density, the importance of detecting smaller cancers, and the various imaging technologies competing to make incremental improvements with the same inputs.

But what’s often left out of the conversation is the potential for truly disruptive technology—something that not only detects cancers as small as what we're currently finding, but also streamlines the entire process, enabling patients to begin treatment while the cancer is still small.

Once detected, cancers don’t stay small for long. Imagine a system that could quickly identify the disease, evaluate its extent, assess axillary involvement, biopsy suspicious areas, and present everything to a multidisciplinary clinic—all within a month. Wouldn't that be a game changer?

Enter Breast CT.

Breast CT offers the ability to detect cancers smaller than current methods, with the added advantage of contrast, making it an excellent supplemental imaging tool for dense breast tissue. Studies show that contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) performs as well as MRI in evaluating the extent of disease in cancer patients. With the addition of axillary ultrasound, the workup could be completed even faster.

Breast CT is also likely to be more cost-effective than MRI in most centers, which could increase attendance at high-risk clinics while reducing the financial burden of regular exams.

And we're only just beginning to tap into the full potential of Breast CT. Consider where CT technology started and where it is today—there's so much more to explore.

So, as Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, we’re reminded that for us, it’s an everyday battle. We’re honored to join forces with others to engage in the fight, working toward a future where we can detect earlier, treat faster, and ultimately, beat breast cancer.

Together, we can win this. It’s a team effort.

Dr. David Bodne

Chief Medical Officer, Koning Health