Progress in cancer diagnosis with ultrasound

Despite successes in using ultrasound to characterize tissues at many sites in the body, the diagnosis of cancer, especially in the female breast, has remained challenging. Besides devising methods to analyze the data, there are difficulties with collecting data from enough patients to validate a variety of new methods, and in coping with changes in the hardware. We have been conducting an integrated effort for nine years that has minimized these difficulties and is approaching success.