Dear Women's Imaging Insider,
Lots of evidence exists about the effectiveness of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). The technique is usually pitted against digital mammography, with DBT tending to come out on top. However, these studies often take place in a breast-screening context.
How well does DBT fare in breast assessment clinics, where radiologists confirm the presence of malignancy and refer the patient to treatment, or reject the screen-detected findings and return the woman to routine screening?
New research published in European Radiology focuses on exactly that. Does DBT perform better in the assessment clinic setting? If so, by how much? Find out.
The U.K. keeps making headlines and not only due to Brexit. The British Journal of Cancer found English women ages 70 and older are less likely to survive breast cancer than women of the same age in Belgium, Poland, the Republic of Ireland, and the Netherlands. Read more.
In other U.K. news, due to a computer error, as many as 450,000 women ages 68 to 71 were not invited to their final round of breast screening. Public health authorities initially estimated based on computer models that between 135 and 270 women could have died due to the error. However, officials later updated that number, reducing their estimate of affected women to 75.
Could health service managers have detected the error sooner? The authors of a new correspondence article published in the Lancet suggest perhaps yes, they could have.
Also in the Women's Imaging Community, researchers from Italy concluded that combining digital mammography with DBT finds 90% more breast cancer than digital mammography alone -- and with a similar recall rate. Read more.
In other news, breast cancer screening attendance in Switzerland has hit a new low, despite expanding regional mammography screening programs. Several breast radiologists have blamed antiscreening information and the debate surrounding the pros and cons of breast cancer screening.
Be sure to head on over to the Women's Imaging Community to see other stories that will interest you. And as always, I enjoy hearing from you, so contact me anytime.
