Digital Mammography with Computer Assisted Diagnosis (CAD) Systems

The women of Long Island now have a powerful, new tool to help provide the earliest possible detection of breast cancer! Available at BAB Radiology in Commack, Huntington, Hauppauge and Bay Shore the Digital Mammography CAD System is an advanced computer-aided detection system that digitally scans your regular screening mammogram for all primary signs of breast cancer. The CAD system has proven to be exceptionally effective at early detection of breast cancer. Combined with the specialized expertise and experience of the Radiologists who make up our breast imaging team... we find more cancers sooner, when they are smaller and considerably easier to treat. We are proud to bring our patients the diagnostic advantage of CAD System. This is an important part of our commitment to provide the very best women's imaging services in Long Island.

Digital Mammography and CAD System

In film mammography, which has been used for over 35 years, the image is created directly on a special x-ray. While standard film mammography is very good, it is less sensitive for women who have dense breasts. Prior studies have suggested that approximately 10 percent to 20 percent of breast cancers that were detected by breast self-examination or physical examination are not visible on film mammography.

Digital mammography uses less radiation than film mammography and may proivide more detail than film. Digital mammography allows improvement in image storage and transmission because images can be stored and sent electronically. Radiologists also can use software (CAD) to help interpret digital mammograms.

Recently in the Digital Mammography Screening Trial (DMST) (hosted by National Cancer Institute) the study found the following advantages to Digital Mammography

DMIST showed that, for the entire population of women studied, digital and film mammography had very similar screening accuracy.

Digital mammography was significantly better in screening women who fit any of these three categories:

under age 50 (no matter what level of breast tissue density they had)
of any age with heterogeneously (very dense) or extremely dense breasts
pre- or peri-menopausal women of any age (defined as women who had a last menstrual period within 12 months of their mammograms)

There is no apparent benefit of digital over film mammography for women who fit ALL of the following three categories:

over age 50
those who do not have dense or heterogeneously (very dense) breast tissue
those who are not still menstruating

In addition, there was no statistically significant difference in the accuracy of digital mammography compared to film according to digital mammography machine type, race, or breast cancer risk.

These results suggest that for women who fall into three subgroups (women under age 50, women with heterogeneously dense or extremely dense breasts, and pre- and perimenopausal women), digital mammography may be better at detecting breast cancer than traditional film mammography. Approximately 65 percent of the women in DMIST fit into one of the three subsets that showed a benefit with digital mammography.

Some earlier studies had suggested that digital mammography would result in fewer false positives than film mammography, but the rates of false positives for digital mammography and traditional mammography were the same in DMIST.

Digital Mammography machines are now available in Commack, Huntington, Hauppauge and Bay Shore. Our Shirley office offers traditional (Analog/Film) Mammography for those patients and physicians that continue to prefer it. As always, we ask you to contact your physicians to determine which exam is best for you.