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How to Reduce the Interval Cancer Rate in Mammography Screening

How to Reduce the Interval Cancer Rate in Mammography Screening

Interval cancers are among the biggest challenges in breast screening and until now 20-25% of interval cancers are classified as being missed as false negatives (Houssami, N., Hunter, K. , 2017). The rate of these cancers, that arise between routine screenings and are often growing more aggressively, are a good performance indicator for the efficiency of a screening method (Johnson, K, et al. 2021). 

What do our clinical experts have to say?

Clinical experts demonstrate new insights about a higher probability in detection of interval cancers by presenting their findings from recent screening studies with wide-angle DBT and AI-based CAD. 

Interval cancers in screening with breast tomosynthesis: Results and cases from the Malmö trial

In this online seminar, Dr. Kristin Johnson and Prof. Dr. Sophia Zackrisson (Malmö, Sweden) discuss results and exemplary cases from the Malmö trial with the audience. (EUSOBI ASM, Oct. 2021)

The contribution of wide-angle DBT and AI-based CAD in the detection of interval cancers

Prof. Dr. Sophia Zackrisson (Lund University Malmö, Sweden) talks about the recent insight from the Malmö Breast Tomosynthesis Screening Trial and explain the contribution of wide-angle Breast Tomosynthesis in the detection of interval cancers - which she published in Radiology.

Dr. Alejandro Rodriguez-Ruiz (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) focuses on the role of artificial intelligence for the reduction of interval cancer rates. (April 2021)

Publications

References

1. Johnson K, Lång K, Ikeda DM, Åkesson A, Andersson I, Zackrisson S. Interval Breast Cancer Rates and Tumor Characteristics in the Prospective Population-based Malmo Breast Tomosynthesis Screening Trial. Radiology. 2021;299:559-567

2. Lång K, Hofvind S, Rodríguez-Ruiz A, Andersson I. Can artificial intelligence reduce the interval cancer rate in mammography screening? Eur Radiol. 2021;31:5940-594

Related abstracts 

Interval cancers in screening with breast tomosynthesis: Results and cases from the Malmö trial


Sophia Zackrisson, Kristin Johnson; Malmö, Sweden

The superiority of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) compared to digital mammography (DM) for cancer detection in screening is undoubted, as indicated by the results from several large, prospective screening trials. The Malmö Breast Tomosynthesis Screening Trial involving 15000 women in Malmö, Sweden is unique in the sense that it investigated wide-angle, 1-view DBT with reduced compression and still gave results on par with more extensive imaging protocols in other trials. The trial showed an increase in cancer detection of 34% and acceptable recall rates. Our most recent results show that the rate of interval cancers decreased after screening with DBT compared to a large, contemporary control group screened with digital mammography. This is important information adding to the growing evidence of DBT contributing to even a more effective breast cancer screening. The interval cancer cases in the trial can be used to learn more about DBT screen-reading.

Learning objectives:

  • The interval cancer rate was reduced in the Malmö Breast Tomosynthesis Screening Trial compared to a control group screened with only digital mammography.
  • The characteristics of the interval cancers were in general non-favorable.
  • Retrospective cancer visibility might be a challenge when introducing DBT.