Two-dimensional or three-dimensional imaging for breast cancer screening? An evaluation study of sensitivity and specificity from Northern Kerala, India

Abstract

Author(s): Satheesh Babu*, Thaddeus Alfonso, Kalpita Shringarpure, Prashant Bhat and Sarath K E

Breast cancer is considered the most serious lesion among different breast lesions. Mammography is the corner stone for screening for detection of breast cancer. It has been modified to digital mammography (DM) and then to Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT). Tomosynthesis is an emerging technique for diagnosis and screening of breast lesions. Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer globally and a most frequent cancer in females, with 1.67 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 alone. Database of Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs) (2009-2011) from India denote breast cancer as the most common type of cancer followed by cancer of cervix and gall bladder. Mammography is a modality of early diagnosis, which is affordable, reliable and reproducible with proven reduction of mortality from breast cancer. This may be more helpful in early detection of cancers, especially in case of non-palpable lesions. However, technology has undergone drastic changes from analogue mammography to digital mammography which is reported to have significantly higher cancer detection rate in women aged 40-49 years (82.4% vs 75.6%). Digital system has improved contrast resolution because of higher detective quantum efficiency and dynamic range.

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