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The Mammography section is a comprehensive resource for diagnostic imaging news and expert insights on Mammography. Read more at Diagnostic Imaging.

Mammography | Clinical News & Insights | Diagnostic Imaging

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 mammography modality focus page provides information, videos, podcasts, and the latest news about industry product developments, trial results, screening guidelines, and protocol guidance that touch on the use of mammography, including 2D digital mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis, and breast ultrasound.

For breast cancer detection, Habib Rahbar, M.D., said it’s well established in the literature that vascular-based studies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) provide more optimal sensitivity in comparison to X-ray based or anatomic-based studies. During a recent 

, Dr. Rahbar noted tradeoffs between breast MRI and CEM.

“We know that CEM or contrast enhanced mammography is probably a little bit more specific than MRI (with a) little fewer false positives, but at a cost of a little bit of a sensitivity hit. That's probably due to the fact that the conspicuity of some of the lesions is not quite as dramatic on CEM,” maintained Dr. Rahbar, a professor and executive vice chair of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

“ … (For an additional breast cancer screening test), I still prefer MRI because I think it's the best tool that we have. But CEM and other contrast-based approaches have a real role too, because there could potentially be improved access and might be cheaper for us to implement in some areas as well.”

, Stamatia Destounis, M.D., noted that a standardized protocol for abbreviated breast MRI remains elusive. While Emily Conant, M.D., acknowledged studies that shows T2-weighted MRI impacts outcomes less than five percent of the time, all of the panelists emphasized the value of T2-weighted imaging for increasing the specificity of abbreviated breast MRI.

While emphasizing “remarkable” cancer detection with abbreviated breast MRI, standardized reimbursement will likely be the key driver for implementation, according to Dr. Conant, a professor emeritus with the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. However, Dr. Destounis expressed concern that evaluation of abbreviated breast MRI for CPT coding may trigger a negative re-evaluation of full breast MRI.

“The concern is that this may turn out to be kind of a hit all across the board for many of us that have breast MRI practices in an outpatient, private setting. And I can tell you it's not a money maker. We're just breaking even because we don't get the high reimbursement from that full (breast MRI) protocol. So I think that there's some concern there about what a new CPT code may look like for us,” noted Dr. Destounis, the managing partner of Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, New York, and chair of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Commission.

(Editor’s note: For related content, see “

The Reading Room Podcast: Current and Emerging Insights on Abbreviated Breast MRI, Part 1

Possible Real-Time Adaptive Approach to Breast MRI Suggests ‘New Era’ of AI-Directed MRI

Abbreviated MRI and Contrast-Enhanced Mammography Provide Fourfold Higher Cancer Detection than Breast Ultrasound

For more insights from Dr. Destounis, Dr. Conant and Dr. Rahbar, listen below or 

In the second part of a multi-part podcast episode, Stamatia Destounis, MD, Emily Conant, MD and Habib Rahbar, MD, discuss key sequences for abbreviated breast MRI and how it stacks up to other breast cancer screening modalities. 

The Reading Room Podcast: Current and Emerging Insights on Abbreviated Breast MRI, Part 2

, Anand Narayan, M.D., and Amy Patel, M.D., offer their perspectives on the challenges faced by radiologists — who are already grappling with increasingly high volume worklists and radiologist shortages — in implementing expanded breast cancer screening as per recently updated recommendations from the 

United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)

For breast cancer risk assessments, Dr. Patel said another challenge is that not all facilities have access to high-risk breast clinics or genetics programs, limitations that often fall upon the shoulders of breast imaging centers. Dr. Patel noted that artificial intelligence (AI) and possible implementation of a risk-based model with AI may have potential for facilitating appropriate triaging of patients.

In regard to practical steps radiologists can take to help raise awareness of new recommendations to help address disparities in breast cancer screening, Dr. Patel emphasized the importance of an ongoing dialogue with primary care providers.

“Keeping the lines of communication open with your referring providers is paramount. When new recommendations come down the pike, we as a breast imaging community really need to take it upon ourselves to educate our referring providers,” noted Dr. Patel, the medical director of the Liberty Hospital Breast Care Center in Kansas City and an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

New Research Shows Consequences of Delayed Diagnosis in Mammography Screening

The Reading Room Podcast: Emerging Concepts in Breast Cancer Screening and Health Equity Implications, Part 2

The Reading Room Podcast: Emerging Concepts in Breast Cancer Screening and Health Equity Implications, Part 1

For more insights from Dr. Narayan and Dr. Patel, listen below or 

In the third episode of a three-part podcast, Anand Narayan, M.D., Ph.D., and Amy Patel, M.D., discuss the challenges of expanded breast cancer screening amid a backdrop of radiologist shortages and ever-increasing volume on radiology worklists. 

The Reading Room Podcast: Emerging Concepts in Breast Cancer Screening and Health Equity Implications, Part 3

, Anand Narayan, M.D., and Amy Patel, M.D., offer their perspectives and insights on recently published research that suggested the adoption of a risk-adapted model for breast cancer screening.

multicenter study of over one million women in China

 suggested optimal starting ages for screening mammography at 43 for women of high breast cancer risk and after 55 years of age for those deemed to be at low risk of breast cancer.

Another study, published in April 2023, looked at 

data from breast cancer-specific deaths in over 400,000 women

 and suggested that optimal initiation of breast cancer screening should begin at 42 years of age in Black women with White women starting at 51, Indian women and Hispanic women starting at 57 and Asian and Pacific Islander women starting at 61.

In the podcast, Drs. Narayan and Patel discuss complex issues with adopting a risk-adapted model for breast cancer screening, key challenges with implementation and whether this model would reduce or possibly exacerbate disparities with health equity.

“I think it’s great that these authors are bringing some of this data to light and I think it could help inform some of our clinical practice, but I think we need to have caution in terms of clinical implementation and potentially fostering inequities by using race-based science,” noted Dr. Narayan, the vice-chair of equity in the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Should Race and Ethnicity Factor into Starting Ages for Mammography Screening?

In the second episode of a three-part podcast, Anand Narayan, M.D., Ph.D., and Amy Patel, M.D., discuss recent studies published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that suggested moving to more of a risk-adapted model for mammography screening. 

, Anand Narayan, M.D., and Amy Patel, M.D., offer their perspectives and insights on the possible impact of recent breast cancer screening recommendations from the 

(Editor's note: For related content, see "

The Reading Room: Emerging Concepts in Breast Cancer Screening and Health Equity Implications, Part 2

In the first episode of a three-part series, Anand Narayan, M.D., Ph.D., and Amy Patel, M.D., discuss recently issued updates to breast cancer screening recommendations from the American College of Radiology and the United States Preventive Services Task Force and potential implications for health equity.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"11554","attributes":{"alt":"Stephen Rose","class":"media-image media-image-left","id":"media_crop_8501769795264","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"218","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"margin: 5px; float: left;","title":" ","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]In February 2011, the FDA approved the first X-ray mammography system that provides 3-D images for breast cancer screening and diagnosis, 

. The 3-D tomosynthesis is being offered in fewer than two dozen locations in the U.S., and among them is Houston Breast Imaging in Texas.

In this podcast, Stephen Rose, MD, president and CEO of Houston Breast Imaging and a principal investigator of the 3-D tomosynthesis clinical trials in 2010, discusses the benefits of the new technology and what his practice learned when implementing the screening program. .

In this podcast, Stephen Rose, MD, president and CEO of Houston Breast Imaging and a principal investigator of the 3-D tomosynthesis clinical trials in 2010, discusses the benefits of the new technology and what his practice learned when implementing the screening program.

Podcast: Breast Tomosynthesis - One Practice's Experience

In this podcast, Tom Gentile, president and CEO at GE Healthcare Systems, explains that “the whole focus of imaging is moving beyond the quality of the image.” Patient care, physician productivity and reimbursement take on a renewed focus in light of healthcare reform efforts internationally, he says. Such issues will be the focus for GE Healthcare Systems at RSNA 2011.

, CT using Model Based Iterative Reconstruction (MBIR) technology to reduce dose and improve image quality.

Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography will also be a focus at RSNA 2011 for GE. Gentile talks about the speed and specificity of its newly approved product 

as well as newly mobile ultrasound technology,

, that makes ultrasound “the stethescope of the future.”

In this podcast, Tom Gentile, president and CEO at GE Healthcare Systems, explains that “the whole focus of imaging is moving beyond the quality of the image.” Patient care, physician productivity and reimbursement take on a renewed focus in light of healthcare reform efforts internationally, he says.

Podcast: GE on MBIR, Spectral Mammography, Ultrasound and Themes for RSNA 2011

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"1735","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","id":"media_crop_7567161365917","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"201","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","title":" ","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]Imagine a fast, inexpensive method for breast cancer screening. That’s some of the promise behind a new innovation from a doctoral student who has discovered a way to use ultrasound and advanced algorithms to differentiate between benign and malignant tumors.

, a student at the department of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, researched nonlinear elasticity imaging for breast cancer diagnosis. Here Geonezen and his faculty advisor, Assad Oberai, discuss this innovation and what it could mean for breast cancer diagnosis, as well as diagnosis of other diseases.

Imagine a faster, inexpensive method for breast cancer screening. That’s some of the promise behind a new innovation from doctoral student, Sevan Goenezen, who has discovered a way to use ultrasound and advanced algorithms to differentiate between benign and malignant tumors.

Podcast: Student Innovation Holds Promise for Breast Cancer Screening

Noting an increased incidence of false negatives in screening and diagnostic mammography, researchers found that a personal history of breast cancer was associated with over a 3.6-fold higher likelihood of false negatives.

Large Mammography Study Examines Contributing Factors with Higher False-Negative Rates

Concordant mammography detection of breast cancer by radiologists and AI had over a threefold higher likelihood of future incidental breast cancer in comparison to positive radiologist assessment and negative AI evaluation, according to new research involving over 82,000 women.

Mammography Study Shows Elevated Future Breast Cancer Risk with Initial Concordance of Radiologist and AI Interpretation

While dynamic contrast enhanced breast MRI may help reduce biopsies for suspicious calcifications on mammograms, quantitative MRI features and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) may not provide additional diagnostic benefit in these cases, according to a new study.

Assessing the Utility of mpMRI for Enhancing Diagnostic Clarity with Suspicious Calcifications from Mammography Exams

In comparison to false positives with unassisted radiologist interpretations of DBT exams, AI-only false positive assessments were associated with a significantly higher total of false-positive findings as well as a 33 percent lower frequency of dense breasts, according to a new study of nearly 3,000 women who had screening DBT exams.

What a DBT Screening Study Reveals About False Positives with AI and Radiologist Assessments

The Mammo Enhance Heart program combines AI detection of breast arterial calcification (BAC) on screening mammography and subsequent follow-up with a local network of cardiologists.

New Mammo Enhance Heart Program to Enhance Dual Screening for Breast Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease

Citing recent data from the American Cancer Society suggesting that breast cancer incidence may be affecting one in seven women in the near future and improved awareness of dense breasts being an independent risk factor for breast cancer, breast radiologist Deepa Sheth, M.D., emphasized the need for consistent quality in breast cancer imaging in a recent interview with 

When Prime Healthcare acquired eight health-care facilities in Illinois this summer, they utilized the CIVIE RadPod platform to help ensure that all breast imaging for these facilities was interpreted by fellowship-trained breast radiologists. Dr. Sheth noted that utilizing a cloud-based PACS platform facilitates uniformity in standards, quality and reporting, not to mention health equity.

“ … Community hospitals that previously (may) have been forgotten or not given as much attention now get our 100 percent attention. We have made uniform diagnostic schedules across the board. We have uniform biopsy trays across the board. We all give the same recommendations now that follow the BI-RADS lexicon. I would like to say that we've really brought the quality up for all these and we give these patients the care that they deserve,” maintained Dr. Sheth, the chair of women’s imaging for CIVIE.

In the year since federally mandated breast density notification became a reality on mammography reports, Dr. Sheth noted a “greater sense of awareness” among patients.

“It makes me super excited as a breast rad because that’s what we want. We want our patients to be educated and empowered about their breast health,” added Sheth, a breast radiologist affiliated with Cross Country Healthcare in Chicago.

With greater interest in MRI screening for women with dense breasts, Dr. Sheth emphasized the importance of streamlining breast MRI exams to reduce patient discomfort and meet the rising demand for the exams.

“We really want to cut this (MRI) timeline down because one of the things is these women are on their stomachs for this procedure. It's just not very comfortable. How do you recommend this every single year if you're not making this exam (something) they are wanting to come back for? We've really curtailed (the breast MRI) down to 15 minutes in and out,” noted Dr. Sheth.

Echogenic Rind on Breast Ultrasound Associated with High Specificity for Malignancy

For more insights from Dr. Sheth, watch the video below.

In a recent interview, Deepa Sheth, M.D., discussed the rising incidence of breast cancer, key considerations in supplemental imaging for women with dense breasts and use of the CIVIE RadPod platform to facilitate consistent quality and imaging reads by fellowship-trained breast radiologists.

Maintaining Quality Standards for Breast Imaging Amid Rising Imaging Volumes: An Interview with Deepa Sheth, MD

’s Weekly Scan, which offers an opportunity to catch up on the most well-viewed radiology content of the past week.

new meta-analysis of the PI-RADS v2.1 criteria

 showed 96 percent and 88 percent sensitivity rates for PI-RADS category 

 4 assessments respectively, researchers noted a high risk of bias in 29 percent of the reviewed studies.

New research involving over 82,000 women suggests that 

concordance between radiologist interpretation and AI assessment of screening mammography

 may be associated with significantly higher risks of future breast cancer than unassisted radiologist evaluation alone.

In the second part of a recent interview with 

Emmanuel S. Antonarakis, M.D. discusses PSMA PET agents in current trials and cell surface proteins 

that may offer targeting utility in prostate cancer imaging beyond PSMA.

combination of key radiomic features and deep learning AI

 may significantly improve chest computed tomography (CT) differentiation of invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC), atypical adenomatous hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma in situ (AAH + AIS) and inflammatory nodules (IN).

Through enhanced data interoperability and access to patient histories, the 

newly launched cloud-based platform InteleHeart

 may facilitate better communication and workflow efficiencies for radiologists and cardiologists.

Morris Panner shared his thoughts on InteleHeart in a recent interview with 

Diagnostic Imaging's Weekly Scan is your chance to catch up on the latest radiology content, from new research and device news to the latest interviews with leading KOLs..

Diagnostic Imaging’s Weekly Scan: October 12 — October 18

Catch up on the top radiology content of the past week.

Diagnostic Imaging's Weekly Scan: October 12 — October 18

Journal of the American College of Radiology

preoperative breast MRI revealed additional suspicious lesions in over 50 percent of women slated to undergo surgery for newly diagnosed breast cancer

 and was associated with an 18 percent higher rate of mastectomy.

In a prospective study published earlier this week in 

comparable 10-year overall survival rates

 for people who had computed tomography (CT) surveillance (94.7 percent) and those who had surgery for ground-glass nodules (97.6 percent).

, Emmanuel S. Antonarakis, MD discussed contributing factors to the recent American Cancer Society report about rising prostate cancer incidence and 

offered insights about the potential role of the emerging radioligand agent 177Lu-PSMA-I&T for patients with mCRPC

, Manisha Bahl, MD, discussed new research, recently presented at the European Society of Breast Imaging, which showed 

significant associations between AI detection and the histologic grade and lymph node status of breast cancer

Earlier this week, the Society of Abdominal Radiology issued 

new consensus recommendations on the use of abdominal photon-counting CT

 in adults. Based on survey findings and subsequent voting from radiologists at nine facilities, researchers offered 20 recommendations on key protocol features.

Diagnostic Imaging’s Weekly Scan: October 5 — October 11

Catch up on the top radiology content of the past week.



Diagnostic Imaging's Weekly Scan: October 5 — October 11

Current estimates suggest that one woman dies from cardiovascular disease every 80 seconds and that over 450,000 women die from heart disease annually in the United States. In light of these sobering figures, breast radiologist Arthy Saravanan, M.D., said the advent of the Mammo Enhance Heart program, with its combined emphasis on breast cancer screening as well as cardiovascular risk assessment, could have a significant preventive impact for women’s health.

“The Mammo Enhance Heart program is specifically designed to take the screening mammogram that a patient gets and provide the additional layer of information that wasn't provided before, which is the identification of cardiovascular disease risk,” explained Dr. Saravanan in a recent interview with 

. “So it's really a two for one program, because the patient is not having any extra radiation, doesn't have any extra pain or discomfort or extra time spent to have this portion of their health evaluated. It is really an opportunistic screening measure.”

Dr. Saravanan emphasized that breast arterial calcification (BAC), detected on mammograms, is an established biomarker for cardiovascular disease risk and adverse events. She added that the FDA-cleared artificial intelligence (AI) tool used for the Mammo Enhance Heart program (developed by Radiology Partners) offers enhanced sensitivity for BAC detection with potential monitoring benefits in comparing successive mammography screening.

“The tool can also be used, I think, in terms of follow up in future imaging. Year after year, if a patient is coming back to us and getting a screening mammogram and chooses to have the Mammo Enhance Heart program, the tool can help to identify if these calcifications have increased, stayed the same, (or) whether those effects are getting worse over time,” posited Dr. Saravanan, an assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at the University of Texas, Austin.

Dr. Saravanan added that the Mammo Enhance Heart program, which also facilitates follow-up with cardiologists if necessary, enables radiologists to have an even broader impact in preventive care for women.

“I really think this is kind of a first step in how we as breast imagers and radiologists in general can add to fields and functions outside of our kind of capacity to help in the overall care of the patient. … It's not just breast cancer risk that we're assessing now. We're also looking a step ahead and a step further into heart disease risk and really kind of the overall holistic picture of how this might affect a woman's health,” pointed out Dr. Saravanan, the associate chief medical officer of recruitment for Radiology Partners.

FDA Expands Clearance for AI Mammography Software for Breast Arterial Calcification Detection

New Mammography Studies Assess Image-Based AI Risk Models and Breast Arterial Calcification Detection

For more insights from Dr. Saravanan, watch the video below.

In a recent interview, Arthy Saravanan, M.D., discussed the potential impact of the Mammo Enhance Heart program from Radiology Partners and its potential impact in facilitating dual screening for breast cancer and cardiovascular risk.

A Closer Look at the Mammo Enhance Heart Program: An Interview with Arthy Saravanan, MD

In a recent interview, Arthy Saravanan, M.D., discussed the recent launch of the Mammo Enhance Heart program from Radiology Partners and its potential impact in facilitating dual screening for breast cancer and cardiovascular risk.

New research presented at the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI) Annual Meeting suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) for digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) provides greater than 90 percent detection of breast cancer and may also be significantly associated with histologic grade and lymph node status.

For the retrospective study, researchers examined the use of DBT-based AI (Genius AI® Detection 2.0, Hologic) in a cohort of 599 women (mean age of 66) with a total of 602 screening-detected breast cancer. According to the study, invasive carcinomas accounted for 80.1 percent of the screening-detected breast cancer with the remaining 19.9 percent being ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

The researchers found positive AI scores in 93 percent of the cases. In a recent interview, lead study author Manisha Bahl, M.D., pointed out the correlation between higher AI scores and higher histologic grades. There was also a strong association between higher AI scores and lymph node involvement, according to Dr. Bahl.

“In our cohort, approximately 10 percent of women had positive lymph nodes at (the) time of diagnosis. That is, the breast cancer had metastasized to the ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes, and we found that lymph node positive tumors had significantly higher AI scores than lymph node negative tumors. The average AI score for lymph node positive tumors was 72 out of 100 which was significantly higher than the average AI score for lymph node negative tumors, which was 60,” observed Dr. Bahl, an associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and director of the breast imaging fellowship program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Noting little in the way of studies examining the use of AI scores as potential biomarkers of breast tumor biology, Dr. Bahl said the current study findings suggest expanded utility of AI beyond adjunctive detection in breast cancer screening pending future research.

“ … Genius AI Detection 2.0 has a high sensitivity for the detection of breast cancer. It can help us detect breast cancers and potentially reduce the false negative rate of screening mammography, which is an important metric. Now, in addition, our current study shows that AI could also serve as an imaging biomarker and provide insights into underlying tumor biology and tumor aggressiveness. Further research is needed to validate our findings and explore the clinical implications of these findings.”

Study Shows Higher Recall PPV and Lower False-Positive Recall Rate with Combination of DBT and Synthesized Mammography

Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Study Assesses Impact of Architectural Distortion on Malignancy Rates

In a recent interview, Manisha Bahl, M.D., discussed new research showing significant associations between AI detection and the histologic grade and lymph node status of breast cancer.

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