Objective To assess the values of automated breast volume scanner (ABVS) for differentiating of benign and malignant breast masses.Methods A total 174 breast masses in 148 patients were subjected both to conventional handheld B-mode ultrasound (HHUS) and ABVS examinations.The masses were defined as five categories of benign,probably benign,equivocal,probably malignant,and malignant with each method.The results of ABVS and HHUS were compared with pathology.By using the definitive diagnosis and the five levels of suspicion categories,receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to evaluate their diagnostic results.In addition,the diagnostic accuracy for breast masses of futures including retraction phenomenon and hyperechoic rim in coronal plane of ABVS was evaluated.Results The area under the ROC curve of ABVS (0.927) was larger than that of HHUS (0.903) (Z =2.256,P =0.024).The specificity and the positive predictive values both reached to 100％ and false positive rate was 0 with retraction phenomenon,and the specificity and the negative predictive value were 88.89％ and 94.51％ respectively with hyperechoic rim in coronal plane of ABVS.Conclusions ABVS plays an important role in the clinical practice.The retraction phenomenon and hyperechoic rim of breast masses in coronal plane of this new modality have high specialty for differentiating malignant from benign breast masses.