Aims and objectives
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women and the leading cause of cancer death among women in the world [1].
Standard digital mammography (DM) is the main method for an early detection of breast cancer adopted in order to reduce this mortality rate.
However,
detection phase is still a difficult phase,
especially in dense breasts,
where the high density decreases the sensitivity and increases false-positive cases because it can mask effects and overlap the dense parenchyma [2,3].
Moreover,
breast density is also...
Methods and materials
The biopsies,
collected from January 2015 to December 2017 at I.R.C.C.S.
Istituto Tumori "Giovanni Paolo II" of Bari (Italy),
were counted and classified into histological classes for each year.
Then,
the data of each year were compared to each others,
taking into account that:
in 2015 only 2D digital mammographies were used for clinical exams;
in 2016 2D digital mammographies were performed as well as tomosynthesis,
but the latter only in-depth analysis;
in 2017 tomosynthesis were regularly performed on all patients starting from the first...
Results
The number of annual mammograms examined was summerized in Figure 1 (green histogram).
Moreover,
the number of stereotactic VABBs per year is also shown as red histogram.
The data showed an increase of the number of biopsies in 2016 (2.5% with respect to the total number of 2D digital mammograms) in coincidence with the introduction of tomosynthesis in cases where a more accurate exams was necessary probably related to the lack of initial familiarity of some operators with these new images.
On the other hand,...
Conclusion
The regular use of tomosynthesis on all patients seems to produce a smaller number of requests of stereotactic biopsies,
that were also more aimed.
Indeed,
their histological results showed a polarization towards BIRADS categories 2 and 5.
In conclusion,
tomosynthesis is a technique that allows to make more accurate diagnoses and solve particularly unclear cases.
The introduction of this method has an important impact on the number of biopsies to be performed and their results.
Personal information
Multidisciplinary group of National Cancer Center "Giovanni Paolo II" andInterdisciplinary Department of Medicine,
Section of Diagnostic Imaging,
“Aldo Moro” University of Bari Medical School,
Bari,
Italy.
The group deals with research in radiology and health physics,
in particular image analysis.
Contact:
Daniele La Forgia,
MD
[email protected]
Marco Moschetta,
MD
[email protected]
References
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Torre LA,
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Tagliafico A,
Houssami N,
Greuter MJ,
de Bock GH.
(2018).
Digital breast tomosynthesis for breast cancer screening and diagnosis in women with dense breasts–a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC cancer,18(1),
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Tagliafico AS,
Mariscotti G,
Valdora F,
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Nori J,
La Forgia D,
et al.
(2018).
A...
