Advanced 3D Mammography More Effective at Detecting Breast Cancer than Traditional 2D

A new study finds that 3D digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is more effective at detecting breast cancer than traditional 2D digital mammography (DM). The findings were posted in the journal Radiology.

The researchers assessed 1,407 breast cancer cases detected from August 2008 to July 2021. The analysis consisted of 35,544 DM screenings and 237,394 DBT screenings. Subsequently, the investigators compared a variety of data points, such as patient demographics, imaging results, and pathology reports.

Results showed that DBT had a higher rate of cancer detection than DM (5.3 versus 4 per 1000 screenings) without leading to over-diagnosis. Moreover, the study found that the false positive recall rate was appreciably less for DBT (7.2%) compared with DM (10.6%).

“Most of the time, women will do better with 3D mammograms since their cancers are being caught sooner,” said co-first author Dr. Liane Philpotts, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and a member of Yale Cancer Center via a press release.

“Based on the results, DBT is an effective screening tool that not only finds more cancers, it catches them earlier at a lower stage, which means fewer advanced cancers,” said Dr. Philpotts. “And over time, when women have repeated 3D mammograms, the number of advanced cancers diagnosed is even lower.”