Automated whole-breast US finds more cancer than mammo alone

Monday, November 28 | 3:00 p.m.-3:10 p.m. | SSE02-01 | Room E450A

Automated whole-breast ultrasound (AWBU) finds cancers in dense breast tissue that mammography alone would not, according to researchers who will present their finding in this Monday afternoon session.

Dr. Judy Dean and colleagues will present results from a study they conducted to examine asymptomatic women having routine mammography. All women included in the study had dense breast tissue or a high risk of breast cancer. Dean's group compared diagnostic yield and specificity of mammography, automated whole-breast ultrasound, and the two modalities combined.

Mammography alone found 4.5 nonpalpable cancers per 1,000; adding AWBU increased the number to 7.9 per 1,000. All the additional cancers AWBU identified were invasive. Mammography's specificity was 99.5%, AWBU's was 99.4%, and their combined specificity was 99%, according to Dean and colleagues.

While early detection of breast cancer with mammography can prevent breast cancer deaths, because mammography does not catch all early cancers, AWBU can help find those cancers mammography may miss in high-risk or dense-breasted women, the group concluded.