May 13, 2008 8:22 pm US/Eastern
Local Study Could Improve Breast Cancer Diagnosis
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
A landmark clinical trial done in Pittsburgh could improve the way doctors diagnose breast cancer.
The bottom line: Mammograms just aren't enough for some high-risk women. Local doctors have been screening local women at risk for breast cancer as part of a study.
"A woman qualified if she had dense breasts, and were high risk. And high risk means a first degree relative had breast cancer, they had a history of breast cancer," Dr. William Poller, a breast cancer specialist, from Allegheny General Hospital.
Dense breasts have a lower proportion of fat, making mamograms more difficult to interpret.
"They knew they were high risk and they didn't want to get breast cancer, and they thought this might be an added benefit," he said.
The nationwide study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, compared mammogram as a screening tool to mammogram plus ultrasound.
The doctors were able to diagnose more cancer in the group getting both tests - 11 cancers for every 1,000 women screened compared to just eight per thousand in the group getting mammograms alone.
But the doctors also found more "false positives." In other words, abnormalities that looked like tumors, which on further testing, turned out to be nothing. That happened to one in 10 women.
How the combination test will be used in general isn't clear. Not every woman getting a mammogram should also have an ultrasound, but if there's a family history, or a previous history of breast cancer, and a woman has dense breasts, that might be a situation where both tests used together might help to diagnose a cancer early.
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