Impact of Different Breast Cancer Screening Methods on the Discovery Rate of Ductal Carcinoma in situ (DCIS)

Abstract

We evaluated the impact of different types of breast cancer screening methods on the ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) discovery rate. One was a population-based screening (A group), and the other was an opportunistic screening group (B group). We performed a retrospective investigation of patients who visited our hospital during 2011. Four hundred and sixty-nine patients visited our hospital for breast cancer screening. Of these patients, 30.3% were diagnosed as having breast cancer by histopathology. The discovery rate of breast cancer was significantly higher in group B than in group A. There was no significant difference between group A and group B in the discovery rate of DCIS. Group A used only mammography. However, 82.3% of the patients in group B underwent mammography plus ultrasonography. These results suggested that the addition of ultrasonography to breast cancer screening is useful to detect breast cancer. However, the addition of ultrasonography does not affect the discovery rate of DCIS.