New European Medical Supporter, Just Published
New European Medical Supporter
DenseBreast-info/Europe announces our new European Supporter Dr. Fleur Kilburn-Toppin. She is a Consultant Breast Radiologist and Director of Breast screening at Cambridge University Hospital, UK. She is also on the Executive Board and Chair of the Educational committee for the European Society for Breast imaging. Her research interests are on a variety of aspects of breast imaging including breast density. Welcome!
Just Published
Gordon et al reported an audit of biopsies prompted by technologist-performed handheld screening ultrasound (US) in women with dense breasts in British Columbia. Women received either annual or biennial digital 2D mammography, with screening US midway in the interval.
- Screening US significantly increased the rate of biopsies performed.1
- Screening improved cancer detection2, most of which were early breast cancer.3
- The majority of women with US-detected cancer had heterogeneously dense breasts4and half had no other risk factors.
- Recall rates could not be assessed.
In Canada, 12 of 13 provinces have screening mammography programs. Screening US is currently available only by request in 5 of 12 provinces. The yield of screening US in this study was much higher than in a prospective study in the USA with concurrent annual tomosynthesis.
1 Among a mix of 5257 incidence and prevalence screening US examinations, 247 (4.7%) women had biopsy prompted by US.
2 32 cancers were identified in 32 women, for an incremental cancer detection rate of 6.1/1000 and PPV3 of biopsies of 32/281 (11.4%) at the lesion level.
3 Of the 32 cancers, 26 (82%) were invasive with mean size 13 mm (range 5 to over 40), and 24/26 (92%) were node negative.
4 Of the 32 women with US-detected cancer, 27 (84%) had heterogeneously dense breasts and 5 had extremely dense breasts.