Dear Women's Imaging Insider,
The breast screening debate has intensified dramatically over recent weeks, and an important new study published by authors from a top European center shows that women who participated in at least three screening mammograms saw their mortality from breast cancer drop by half.
Researchers from Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands looked at patients who participated in the Dutch national mammography screening program, and found that during the study period mortality rates from breast cancer dropped by 49%.
Will the new findings serve to quell criticism of the effectiveness of mammography screening, which has been particularly harsh from a group of Scandinavian researchers? Probably not, but you can catch up with today's news by clicking here.
Our Women's Imaging Digital Community has a host of other stories to keep you informed, such as the following:
- Is breast tomosynthesis really such a big deal? Experts from a leading London hospital say yes, it is, especially after assessing its potential in cancer screening and diagnosis in more than 1,500 women over the past two years. They presented their findings at last week's RSNA meeting.
- FDG-PET/CT assesses early chemotherapy response in breast cancer patients. The method's ability to evaluate pathological response after two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy could help breast cancer patients avoid ineffective treatment, German researchers found.
- 3-tesla 3D MR spectroscopy works well for breast lesions, according to Austrian researchers. It provides high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing between benign and malignant breast lesions.
- Hungary fine-tunes its approach to breast screening. It's been 10 years since Hungary launched its national breast cancer screening program, and in that time breast cancer rates have fallen. Find out how much by clicking here.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, so be sure to visit our community to read the rest of our stories. And if there's something you'd like to see more of, please drop me a line. Last, but not least, happy holidays.
