Study finds improvement in detection of breast cancer in mammograms over 9-year period
February 14, 2016
According to Ichikawa, the increase in the cancer detection rate outweighed the increase in false-positive test results over the nine-year time period, for a positive net effect.
"This is good news for women and for radiology that we have seen a net improvement in how radiologists interpret mammograms," she said. "Radiologists are doing a better job of discriminating cancer from non-cancer."
A total of 12,498 invasive cancers and non-invasive cancers were diagnosed. An invasive cancer is a cancer that has spread beyond the layer of tissue where it developed and is growing into surrounding, healthy tissues. Overall, 78.7 percent of cancers included in the study were invasive.
The majority of mammograms included in the study were film studies. Ichikawa said future studies could focus on time trends of radiologists' interpretive performance when reading digital mammograms. Digital mammography, which was just beginning to be adopted in healthcare institutions towards the end of this study, is now available in approximately half of all mammography facilities in the country.
Source: Radiological Society of North America