Effectiveness of hybrid digital breast tomosynthesis/digital mammography in women presenting for routine screening at Maroondah BreastScreen, Australia: Interim analysis

TL;DR

This study shows that a hybrid approach combining digital breast tomosynthesis and digital mammography is effective for breast cancer screening with faster reading times.

Contribution

The study provides interim evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of a hybrid DBT/DM screening approach in a large-scale trial.

Findings

Hybrid DBT/DM had a cancer detection rate of 10.6 per 1,000 screens.

Screen-reading time was approximately halved compared to standard DBT.

Recall rate was 4.2% with a mean glandular dose of 2.49 mGy.

Abstract

Hybrid digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT)/digital mammography (DM) (mediolateral oblique from DBT with synthetic 2D, craniocaudal from DM) can potentially improve breast cancer detection and address longer DBT screen-reading time. This pre-specified interim analysis presents the first 5,000 (of target 20,000) hybrid DBT/DM screens in an ongoing prospective trial in BreastScreen Australia. Cancer detection rate for hybrid DBT/DM was 10.6/1,000 screens; recall rate was 4.2 %; median screen-reading time was 36 seconds; and mean glandular dose was 2.49 mGy. Cancer detection and recall rates for hybrid DBT/DM were consistent with DBT metrics in a previous pilot study; screen-reading time was approximately halved.

•Hybrid DBT/DM screening showed comparable breast cancer detection and recall to previous estimates for two-view DBT.•Screen-reading time was approximately halved.•Interim results are encouraging for the potential feasibility of hybrid DBT/DM screening.

Hybrid DBT/DM screening showed comparable breast cancer detection and recall to previous estimates for two-view DBT.

Screen-reading time was approximately halved.

Interim results are encouraging for the potential feasibility of hybrid DBT/DM screening.