BREAST CANCER RESEARCH Will electrical test replace mammograms?

The new test is more comfortable, less expensive and could have better results.
By HILARY WALDMAN
HARTFORD COURANT
Electricity flows more quickly through malignant tissue because abnormally growing cells clump together, and the cell membranes leak more than the membranes of healthy cells.
For decades, scientists have tried to measure differences in electrical conduction and create images of the breast showing areas where the current flows most quickly.
But because electric current does not flow in a straight line, creating precise images has been impossible.
Then about five years ago, a Canadian doctor turned electrical engineer and entrepreneur had an idea.
Recalling his days as a general practitioner, Dr. Leslie W. Organ, 70, thought about other diagnostic tests for conditions such as high blood sugar or cholesterol. Doctors don't look at images of the blood to recognize those disorders -- rather, they only look at numerical values comparing sugar or blood fat levels to a standard considered normal.
Using a paper cutout to fit over the breast, standard EKG electrodes, an adapted volt meter and alligator clips, Organ fashioned a crude device for measuring the flow of electrical current through the breasts.
Difference analysis
Dr. Organ's company, Z-Tech of Toronto and Charleston, S.C., has since refined and manufactured the device using money from venture capitalists. The company is paying for the study.
The device, called a homologous electrical difference analysis, or HEDA, sends a harmless, painless electrical charge into the breast. The flow of the current is documented in a series of numerical measurements showing the speed of flow through 16 spots around the breast.
The rate of flow is compared at identical spots on the left and right breast. In healthy breasts, the speed of the current through both sides should be roughly the same. If there is a difference between the breasts, doctors should be suspicious.
"Finding a difference will be like a red flag," said Dr. Scott Kurtzman, a surgeon at the University of Connecticut Health Center and a lead investigator on the study. It's highly unusual for a woman to develop cancer in both breasts at the same time.
In a small study of 400 women, the electrical device was about as accurate as a mammogram in detecting suspicious spots, Dr. Organ said. And, he said, the electrical method was more accurate than a mammogram in detecting lumps that ultimately turned out to be cancer.
Advanced study
But Dr. Organ cautioned that the first study was too small to prove the value of the electrical method. For the new study, which began in July and will take 18 months, he hopes to try the method on 4,500 women. Each will have a subsequent mammogram, followed by a biopsy if the mammogram shows a suspicious lump.
The results of the electrical scan will be compared with mammogram and biopsy results to determine the predictive power.
If it works, Dr. Organ said, the electric method could be performed in any doctor's office. For women with no family history of breast cancer, it could replace the mammogram, which requires that each breast be squeezed tightly between two panes of glass to ensure a clear image. Many women find the procedure uncomfortable, and some skip it altogether.
Dr. Kurtzman said the electric method would be particularly useful for women in their 30s with a close relative who had breast cancer at a young age. Because the breasts of young women are dense, mammograms are not very accurate screening tools for them, Dr. Kurtzman said.
Predicted effects
If it works and is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Organ said, the device could reduce the number of mammograms performed while increasing the number of women screened for breast cancer. It also could save money. He estimated that the electrical method would cost about one-third less than an average mammogram.
Jan Pinto, a 49-year-old nurse at the health center who tried the device as part of the study, said the whole procedure took less than 10 minutes, and she felt nothing.
"A mammogram is uncomfortable; it's something I never looked forward to," Pinto said.