Many at Risk Do Not Undergo Supplemental Screening After Mammography

TUESDAY, June 13, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Many women at high risk of screening mammography failure do not undergo supplemental screening after mammography, according to a study published online June 8 in Cancer.

Brian L. Sprague, Ph.D., from the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine in Burlington, and colleagues examined mammography screening failure risk (interval invasive cancer or advanced cancer) among women undergoing supplemental ultrasound screening versus those undergoing mammography alone. During 2014 to 2020, 38,166 screening ultrasounds and 825,360 screening mammograms without supplemental screening were identified within three Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) registries. BCSC prediction models were used to determine the risk of interval invasive cancer and advanced cancer.

Overall, 95.3 and 41.8 percent of the ultrasounds and screening mammograms without supplemental screening, respectively, were among women with heterogeneously or extremely dense breasts. The researchers found that high interval invasive breast cancer was prevalent in 23.7 percent of screening ultrasounds and 18.5 percent of screening mammograms without supplemental screening among women with dense breasts (adjusted odds ratio, 1.35); intermediate/high advanced cancer risk was prevalent in 32.0 and 30.5 percent of screening ultrasounds and screening mammograms without supplemental screening, respectively (adjusted odds ratio, 0.91).

"Among women with dense breasts, there was very little targeting of ultrasound screening to women who were at the highest risk of a mammography screening failure," Sprague said in a statement. "In other words, many women at low risk of breast cancer despite having dense breasts underwent ultrasound screening, while many other women at high risk of breast cancer underwent mammography alone with no supplemental screening."

Several authors disclosed ties to industry.

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