2/9/2006 - AHRQ Breast Imaging Report Confused and Inaccurate
The recent Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) report titled Effectiveness of Noninvasive Diagnostic Tests for Breast Abnormalities presents a simplistic, misleading, and inaccurate assessment of the role of various breast imaging modalities, and reflects a serious lack of understanding of the steps involved in detecting and diagnosing breast cancer with imaging procedures.
This study, whose list of authors includes no radiologists, fails to recognize that there is a difference between an inconclusive screening mammogram and a mammogram, which, after a thorough workup, is assessed as showing a suspicious finding.
It is well known among breast imagers (radiologists) that additional imaging studies should not be used to obviate the need for biopsy of a suspicious mammographic finding.
"A woman with a suspicious abnormality on her mammogram needs a biopsy, period. However, additional testing, particularly ultrasound, is a crucial step in the thorough evaluation of an inconclusive mammogram. In addition, other imaging modalities such as MRI can be useful in determining extent of disease for highly suspicious mammographic findings, both before and after biopsy," said Carol Lee, MD, chair of the ACR Breast Imaging Commission. "Women should not be misled by this report into thinking that additional imaging evaluation after an inconclusive screening mammogram is unnecessary or inaccurate, and should not prematurely demand biopsy of findings before they are thoroughly evaluated."
No one imaging test is 100% accurate. By utilizing the entire spectrum of breast imaging techniques, radiologists strive to avoid unnecessary procedures while achieving the goal of a timely diagnosis of breast cancer.
Click here for more information on the AHRQ report.