Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Breast cancer

Improving cancer detection rates

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 11, page 440 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Screening mammography has a key role in early breast cancer detection; however, it is associated with excessive false-positives and limited sensitivity. The group led by Sarah Friedewald has now shown that the combination of tomosynthesis with digital mammography reduces the recall rate (proportion of patients requiring additional imaging based on a screening examination result) and increases cancer detection.

Several single-centre studies have reported that the addition of tomosynthesis, which enables high-resolution 3D imaging using X-ray technology, to digital mammography improves breast cancer detection while decreasing recall. Friedewald and colleagues set out to investigate whether such benefits could be confirmed in a group of 13 different sites across the USA. The researchers performed an observational study of 454,850 examinations over two periods: before and after the implementation of tomosynthesis in breast cancer screening. Specifically, 281,187 examinations were performed in the first period (digital mammography alone), and 173,663 examinations were performed using tomosynthesis plus digital mammography.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Friedewald, S. M. et al. Breast cancer screening using tomosynthesis in combination with digital mammography. JAMA 10.1001/jama.2014.6095

Download references

Authors
  1. Alessia Errico
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Errico, A. Improving cancer detection rates. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 440 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.120

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.120

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer