The global breast imaging technologies market is expected to reach $3 billion by 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1 percent from this year to 2019, according to a new MarketsandMarkets report.

For the report, the technologies were put into two major sectors, ionizing breast imaging technologies and non-ionizing breast imaging technologies.

The ionizing technologies included analog mammography, full-field digital mammography, 3-D breast tomosynthesis, PET/CT, molecular breast imaging, cone beam computed tomography and positron emission mammography. The non-ionizing technologies were breast MR, breast ultrasound, optical imaging, whole breast ultrasound and breast thermography.

The main drivers of the market are the increasing public and private initiatives to raise awareness about early breast cancer screening, the growing rate of breast cancer, heightened demand for radiation dose reduction, and the fast growing aging population.

However, there are several factors that are hampering the market's growth, including the side effects of radiation from ionizing breast imaging technologies and the high price tags that come along with investment and installation costs.

North America is estimated to have the largest share of the global market as of this year, with Europe following. But the Asia-Pacific market is expected to have the highest CAGR of 10.2 percent because of its increasing frequency of breast cancer, growing focus on early screening and the expansion of its health care infrastructure.

The report cites the major players in the market as Aurora Imaging Technology, Inc., Dilon Technologies, Inc., Dune Medical Devices, Gama Medica, Inc., GE Healthcare, Hologic, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Siemens AG, SonoCine Inc., and Toshiba Corporation.

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