Mammograms are the gold standard for finding breast cancers, but they don't catch them all. Now, a new high-tech scanner will make breast cancer easier to find.

Pam Eckert has never had breast cancer, but it's played a big role in her family's life.

"My mom was diagnosed in her 30s with breast cancer," said Pam. "My sister was diagnosed when she turned 40."

Breast Cancer Breakthrough

Pam had her first mammogram at age 28.

"I want every test possible so that if I have it, I find it early," she said.

That's why she joined a study on the cone beam breast CT scanner. It's a new way to spot hard-to-detect cancers that mammograms miss.

"We know that even the best mammographer in the world will miss 10 to 15 percent of breast cancers in certain types of breasts," said Dr. Avice O'Connell of the University of Rochester.

Unlike mammograms, the scanner does not compress the breast. Women simply place each breast in a hole as the scanner captures 3-D images.

"In certain people with the difficult type of breast, it may indeed improve the detection of small cancers," said Dr. O'Connell.

About 50-percent of women have dense breast tissue, making cancers harder to find. The ability to rotate the breast and view it from any angle has Dr. O'Connell excited about the future.

"It is very exciting to us as radiologists to think that this might, down the road, help us to find those small, early cancers," said Dr. O'Connell.

With her family history, Pam is also excited about the scanner.

"Just because I have escaped 40 and haven't had breast cancer doesn't mean that I don't have risk still for that," she said.

But if she does get it, she knows catching it early will mean more time for her and her family.

The scanner is still under study at the University of Rochester as well as the University of California in Davis. Larger studies are needed before the FDA can approve the scanner.