Computers could revolutionise breast screening
Press release: 1 October 2008Computer technology could transform the way screening for breast cancer is performed, thanks to research by The University of Manchester.
The Cancer Research UK-funded study found that a computer can safely replace a medical expert in a revolutionary way of interpreting a breast X-ray.
The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has shown that a single trained expert plus a computer is just as effective at detecting breast cancer as the two experts who traditionally read a mammogram in the UK.
Dr Sue Astley, who led the research in Manchester, says the ‘computer-aided detection’ (CAD) system will free up staff and lead to an increase in the number of screenings that can be achieved.
“We hope this will be seen as a definitive study and it will persuade the breast screening programme committee to adopt the CAD system, so we can expand the programme and work more on investigating any abnormalities.
“Radiologists frequently look at scans of 100 women in one session; they work in a darkened room and require huge concentration. The advantage of using a computer is that it doesn’t get tired.”
The study invited 28,000 women to have their mammograms read both in the conventional way by two radiologists and also by a single radiologist using the computer.
The researchers found that film readers using the CAD program - where mammograms were read by a single expert plus the computer - was as good at finding cancers as the standard UK practice where two experts read each mammogram.
Professor Fiona Gilbert, of the University of Aberdeen and lead author of the study, said: “In the UK, it will mean that the same number of experts can read more mammograms in a given period of time. We want to offer screening to a wider age group, those 47-50 years old and 70-73 years old, an increase of around 30 per cent.”
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For more information contact:
Aeron HaworthMedia Officer
Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 8383
Email: aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk