A simulation study using two modeling approaches has shown that yearly digital breast cancer screening of U.S. women aged 40 to 74 may stave off 968 breast cancer deaths per 100,000 women screened—but the associated radiation exposure stands to cause 125 cancers leading to 16 deaths in the same cohort.

In a sample group of more than 64,000 elderly women who had mammograms from 1995 to 2009, those who self-selected for annual mammography had lower 10-year breast cancer mortality than those who opted for biennial, irregular or no exams.

There’s not a lot of difference between automated and clinical assessments of dense breasts when it comes to estimating a given woman’s risk of getting breast cancer. However, breast density classification may vary substantially between the assessment methods—a finding that could impact decisionmaking around supplemental imaging.

A study on the high cost of patient movement during MRI scans released last spring has drawn a thought-provoking letter to the editor of the journal that published the study report. 

The anti-inflammatory, anti-platelet salicylate medication known to chemists as acetylsalicylic acid—yes, that’s aspirin—doesn’t fight breast cancer but may make dense breast tissue less dense, aiding early detection in  women with that characteristic.

Women who heave a sigh of relief upon learning their breast-cancer diagnosis at screening is a false positive shouldn’t let their guard down. A study in the December edition of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention shows that these patients are at increased risk of developing the disease for at least a decade.

When preparing comparison studies, reporting “no change”—not “no interval change,” not “stable,” not some other variation on the theme—is the best, clearest and most consistent way for radiologists to communicate an absence of change to referring physicians and, increasingly, patients.

Architectural distortion, the non-mass but potentially ominous clinical feature observed in many breast imaging procedures, is less likely to signal malignancy when it’s detected on screening mammography rather than diagnostic mammography or when it does not correlate with a subsequent targeted ultrasound exam.