DBT Increases Cancer Detection Versus Digital Mammography

THURSDAY, Sept. 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) can increase cancer detection compared with two-dimensional digital mammography (DM), according to a study published online Sept. 17 in Radiology.

Liane Elizabeth Philpotts, M.D., from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues compared cancer types and stages over three years of DM screening and 10 years of DBT screening in a retrospective study that identified breast cancers detected by using screening mammography from August 2008 through July 2021.

A total of 1,407 breast cancers were examined: 142 were identified with DM and 1,265 with DBT. The researchers found that the rate of cancer detection was significantly higher with DBT than DM (5.3 versus four cancers per 1,000), with a similar ratio of invasive cancers to ductal carcinomas in situ (76.5:23.5 percent versus 71.1:28.9 percent). There were no differences in the mean invasive cancer size between DM and DBT; incident DBT cases were smaller than prevalent cases. Similar rates of invasive cancer subtypes were seen for DBT and DM: low grade (26.5 versus 29 percent); moderate grade (57.2 versus 51 percent); and high grade (16.1 versus 20 percent). A lower proportion of advanced cancers was seen with DBT than DM (32.6 versus 43.6 percent, respectively) and for DBT prevalent and incident screening (39.1 versus 29.1 percent). No difference was seen in interval cancer rates.

“These findings add to the growing literature regarding cancer detection with DBT and may support its use in screening mammography in the United States and globally,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text

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