Iowa Radiology P.C. has installed new state-of-the-art digital mammography technology at three of its Greater Des Moines clinics. The diagnostic tools will help doctors detect breast cancers at earlier stages and save more lives.

Iowa Radiology, which works in partnership with Iowa Health – Des Moines, offers the “Selena Dimensions,” a three-dimensional digital mammography machine recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The system is in fewer than 100 medical centers nationwide.

The practice has three machines available at its Clive imaging center and one each at its Ankeny and Des Moines locations. “We didn’t want to have patients have to wait for these services, (so we decided) to have them available in each location,” said Tammy Bennett, Iowa Radiology’s business development manager.

The technology allows the radiologists to take multiple low-dose images of the breast at different angles. The images are then used to produce a series of one-millimeter slices that can be viewed as a three-dimensional reconstruction of the breast. The procedure helps the radiologists to better see the size, shape and location of any abnormalities and allows them to detect cancer earlier. The increased accuracy is also expected to reduce the number of callbacks to rescreen patients.

“The ability of this technology to detect cancers at an even smaller size will definitely help us to save lives,” said Dr. Jill Westercamp, an Iowa Radiology physician.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer death among women, second only to lung cancer. Statistics show that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, but if the disease is detected early, the five-year survival rate is 97 percent.

In January, Broadlawns Medical Center became the first hospital in the state to implement 3-D digital mammography when it upgraded to that technology.