Controversy dogs Nordic mammo group; molecular breast tomosynthesis

Dear AuntMinnie Member,

Mammography advocates were dismayed last month by the publication of a new study claiming there's no evidence that breast cancer screening affects death rates.

But the study in the British Medical Journal wasn't the first antimammography salvo from a Nordic research group led by Dr. Peter Gøtzsche of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. Gøtzsche and colleagues have been vexing mammography proponents for years, starting with a meta-analysis in 2000 that concluded that there were no proven benefits for mammography, according to an article by associate editor Kate Madden Yee that we're featuring in our Women's Imaging Digital Community.

The new paper is no different, but it may have had an even greater impact due to the recent controversy over mammography screening sparked by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's new guidelines. In any case, many mammography experts have been criticizing the new paper's methodology and conclusions -- find out what they're saying by clicking here.

Indeed, a paper published just a week after the Nordic study confirmed mammography screening's benefits -- finding that for every false-negative case that has to go to biopsy, screening saves two women who might otherwise have died from breast cancer.

In other mammography news, learn about a new prototype breast imaging unit that combines full-field digital tomosynthesis with a molecular breast tomosynthesis module. University of Virginia researchers hope that the hybrid system's ability to collect functional and anatomical information will improve upon the shortcomings of x-ray-based mammography.

Get these stories and more in the Women's Imaging Digital Community at women.auntminnie.com.