Impact of digital mammography in breast cancer screening: Initial experience in a national breast screening program

Abstract

Full field digital mammography (FFDM) was introduced into the Irish National Breast Screening Program (INBSP) in 2005. The aim of this study is to review the use of FFDM in a National Breast Screening Program and to compare the results to standard screen-film mammography with respect to recall rate and cancer detection rate. All women who underwent breast cancer screening between Jan 2005 and Sep 2007 were reviewed. The recall and cancer detection rates were determined and compared to the gold standard of SFM. Over the study period 16% of women were screened using FFDM. Both the recall rate and the cancer detection rate were higher in the FFDM group. Initial results from the use of FFDM in a National Breast Screening Program indicate that it is comparable to the gold standard of SFM with respect to recall rate and cancer detection rate. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.