Abstract
Objective: The goal of breast cancer screening is not only to decrease the mortality rate, but also to increase the rate of conservative breast therapy while simultaneously decreasing the necessity for chemotherapy. It is imperative that more effort goes into the early detection of breast cancer in order to maintain a high quality of life for postoperative patients. We have been using a combination of mammography (MMG) and ultrasonography (US) for breast cancer screening for 10 years. We compared these methods concerning the effectiveness in cancer detection. Methods: We examined 29,242 women aged between 30to 69 using MMG and US for breast cancer screening during the period between February,1995 and March,2005. Results: Of 29,242 subjects screened,6.0% were recalled for closer examination, with 139 subjects (0.48%) subsequently diagnosed as having breast cancer,105 of them (75.5%) were in the early stages. The detection rates of cancer by MMG and US were 72.0% and 84.6%, respectively, indicating the effectiveness of US in cancer detection. When we compared invasive with the non-invasive lesions, the detection rates of MMG/US were 88.2%/58.8%, and 72.2%/88.9%, respectively. MMG was more efficient in the detection of non-invasive lesions, while US detected invasive lesions more effectively. Conclusion: For the detection of early breast cancer in the screening setting, we recommend the use of US for the detection of tumorous lesions, with the combined usage of MMG for the effective detection of microcalcified lesion.
