Comment published on 24 May 2018, see
Diagnostics 2018, 8(2), 37.
The Role of Ultrasound in Screening Dense Breasts—A Review of the Literature and Practical Solutions for Implementation
Department of Radiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Diagnostics 2018, 8(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8010020
Received: 7 February 2018
/
Revised: 9 March 2018
/
Accepted: 13 March 2018
/
Published: 16 March 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breast Imaging)
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Estimates indicate a nearly 40% breast cancer mortality reduction when screening women annually starting at age 40. Although mammography is well known to be a powerful screening tool in the detection of early breast cancer, it is imperfect, particularly for women with dense breasts. In women with dense breast tissue, the sensitivity of mammography is reduced. Additionally, women with dense breasts have an increased risk of developing breast cancer while mammography has a lower sensitivity. Screening ultrasound, both handheld and automated, is effective in detecting mammographically occult cancer in women with dense tissue. Studies have shown that ultrasound significantly increases detection of clinically important, small, largely invasive, node-negative cancers. The purpose of this review article is to summarize the literature to date regarding screening breast ultrasound, emphasizing differences in cancer detection in high risk and intermediate risk women, and to discuss practical ways to implement screening ultrasound in clinical practice, including automated whole breast ultrasound, as a viable solution to the increasing need for additional screening.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
screening breast ultrasound; breast cancer; breast density; automated breast ultrasound; mammography
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Thigpen, D.; Kappler, A.; Brem, R. The Role of Ultrasound in Screening Dense Breasts—A Review of the Literature and Practical Solutions for Implementation. Diagnostics 2018, 8, 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8010020
AMA Style
Thigpen D, Kappler A, Brem R. The Role of Ultrasound in Screening Dense Breasts—A Review of the Literature and Practical Solutions for Implementation. Diagnostics. 2018; 8(1):20. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8010020
Chicago/Turabian StyleThigpen, Denise, Amanda Kappler, and Rachel Brem. 2018. "The Role of Ultrasound in Screening Dense Breasts—A Review of the Literature and Practical Solutions for Implementation" Diagnostics 8, no. 1: 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics8010020
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
