U.K. study strengthens case for screening mammography with CAD

October 3, 2008 U.K. study strengthens case for screening mammography with CAD H. A. Abella -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Findings from a large study by British researchers suggest mammography screening interpretations by a single radiologist using computer-aided detection are just as good as double reads and could yield better cancer detection rates than single reads without CAD. Despite higher recall rates, single reads with CAD could offer staffing costs trade-offs. The swing of opinion on mammography CAD's utility in one year has not been quite as wild as that on the U.S. Congress' Wall Street bailout plan in a week. But it has not settled down either. Evidence giving CAD a nod for its accuracy and its potentially positive impact on clinical practice, however, continues to pile up. Double reading of screening mammography -- which has proven to increase cancer detection rates up to 14% -- is gold standard procedure in about a fifth of all European states. Not so in the U.S., where having a single dedicated mammographer is nearly a luxury in some areas dealing with a short supply of radiologists. The clinical literature shows that CAD systems have the potential to increase cancer detection rates and that single readers using CAD might be able to match the performance of two readers. CAD could bolster single reading results while posing as an alternative to double+reads, according to results from the Computer-Aided Detection Evaluation Trial II (CADET II) led by Dr. Fiona J. Gilbert, a professor of radiology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

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