Breast screening with ultrasound in patients with mammography-negative dense breasts

A previous study showed an incremental cancer detection rate of about 30% by adding routine ultrasonography in subjects with negativa mammography and dense breast. Still such an increase in detection might not be necessarily a benefit, e.g., it might account for overdiagnosis of not aggressive tumors. This study analyses the frequency of interval cancer in non-dense breast screened by mammography and in dense breasts screened by mammography + ultrasonography. In theory one would expect more interval cancers in dense breasts, as density reduces mammography sensitivity due to a masking effect. The finding of a similar (higher over age 50) frequency of interval cancers in dense as compared to non-dense breast is a convincing prove that ultrasonography really improves the sensitivity of mammography by reducing its false negatives.

Bibliographic Reference:

Corsetti V et al.: "Evidence of the effect of adjunct ultrasound screening in women with mammography negative dense breasts: Interval breast cancers at 1year follow-up", Eur J Cancer. 2011 May:47(7): 1021-6

Stefano Ciatto

Centro di Prevenzione Senologica, Verona, Italy