In a study by Medical Physics PhD Candidate, Brook K Byrd, the three-dimensional shape of breast cancer was examined for the first time in a comprehensive study of 83 patients using supine MRI. As they describe, "implicit to approaches that localize the center of the tumor for breast-conserving surgery (BCS) of non-palpable cancers is the assumption that breast cancers are spherical about a central point, which may not be accurate." The team found that cancers could be categorized into four tumor shapes, with 34% discoidal, 29% segmental, 19% spherical & 18% irregular. They found that they could use these tumor shape models to better inform surgery, and potentially allow more precise resection. The work was published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Sept 2020. DOI: 10.1007/s10549-020-05780-6
