Breast screening technique may lower need for biopsies

A NON-invasive screening technique could reduce the number of biopsies needed for suspected breast cancer.

Three-compartment breast imaging, or 3CB, combines a mammogram with artificial intelligence to identify lifethreatening tumours.

Mammography has been effective in detecting cancer early on, but many women are called back for further diagnostic HOPES Professor Karen Drukker imaging and often need biopsies. The recall rate is estimated at one in 12, and 80% will not have breast cancer.

In a study of data from 109 women with suspicious breast masses, biopsies showed 35 were invasive and 74 benign. When the team at University of Chicago in Illinois used 3CB, the ability to predict cancer by visual interpretation improved from 32% to nearly 50%. Author Prof Karen Drukker said: “These results are very promising.”