DBT plus mammo detects breast cancers with higher histologic grades

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) plus synthesized mammography screening leads to higher detection of early-stage invasive breast cancers grades 2 or 3, according to research published December 5 in Radiology. A team led by Stefanie Weigel, MD, from the University of Münster in Germany, found in its subanalysis of the Tomosynthesis plus Synthesized Mammography (TOSYMA) study that this combined method detects more cancers than mammography alone. The group also found that women ages 60-70 with dense breasts had the highest breast cancer rate in the study. “These results suggest that DBT plus synthesized mammography screening might contribute to increased screening effectiveness by enhancing the early detection of prognostically unfavorable cancers compared with digital mammography,” Weigel and coauthors wrote. Previous research suggests that breast cancer screening with DBT plus synthesized mammography detects more invasive tumors compared to digital mammography. However, it is not known how these two screening approaches assess the prognostic characteristics of detected breast cancers, the researchers noted. Weigel and colleagues compared invasive breast cancers detected with DBT plus synthesized mammography (test arm) versus digital mammography (control arm) screening regarding tumor stage, histologic grade, patient age, and breast density.Imaging depicts a screen-detected invasive breast cancer in the dense breast tissue of a 59-year-old woman. A section in the med...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Subspecialties Breast Breast Imaging Source Type: news