Integrating 2D and 3D screening increases breast cancer detection and may lower reports of false positives.
Integrated 2D and 3D mammography improves breast-cancer detection and may reduce false positive recalls, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology.
Conventional 2D mammography for breast cancer screening has limitations in both detecting cancer and producing false positive results. To address this issue, researchers from Italy and Australia investigated how integration of 2D and 3D mammography may improve cancer detection. This has been looked in a few smaller studies, but this is the largest completed trial that reported on the effectiveness of 3D screening in a larger group.
A total of 7,292 women, median age 58, were screened. Readings were first done with 2D imaging alone and then with integrated 2D and 3D mammography, resulting in paired data for each screening.
The researchers were looking at final assessment or excision histology. Primary outcome measures were the number of detected cancers, the number and proportion of false positive recalls, and incremental cancer detection attributable to integrated 2D and 3D mammography.
Fifty-nine cancers were detected in 57 patients: 20 cancers were found with integrated 2D and 3D versus none with 2D screening only. The cancer detection rates were 5.3 cancers per 1,000 screens when 2D alone was used and 8.1 cancers per 1,000 screens with integrated 2D and 3D screening. The incremental cancer detection rate attributable to integrated 2D and 3D mammography was 2.7 cancers per 1,000 screens.
False results were reported from a total of 395 screens: 181 at both screen reads, and 141 with 2D only, versus 73 with integrated 2D and 3D screening. The researchers estimated that conditional recall (positive integrated 2D and 3D mammography as a condition to recall) could have reduced false positive recalls by 17.2 percent without missing any of the cancers detected in the study population.
The researchers concluded that the integration of 2D and 3D mammography raised detection levels and that randomized controlled trials are needed for further investigation.
Mammography and Breast MRI: Is it Time to Evaluate Strategies as Opposed to Modalities?
July 5th 2024The combination of mammography with breast MRI within 90 days had a 96.2 percent sensitivity in comparison to 48.1 percent for mammography and 79.7 percent for breast MRI performed within 91 to 270 days after index mammography, according to newly published research.
ACR Collaborative Model Leads to 35 Percent Improvement with Mammography Positioning Criteria
July 1st 2024Noting significant variation with facilities for achieving passing criteria for mammography positioning, researchers found that structured interventions, ranging from weekly auditing of images taken by technologists to mechanisms for feedback from radiologists to technologists, led to significant improvements in a multicenter study.