Breast Cancer Screening using Film Mammography versus Digital Mammography: A Systematic Review
Keywords:
Mammography, Breast cancer, Digital, Radiology, ScreeningAbstract
Introduction: Digital mammography may provide better images than film mammography in women who are younger than 50 years, the age group usually associated with dense breast tissue because greater density reduces the sensitivity of mammography, and increases the risk of breast cancer. This review aims to study breast cancer screening using film mammography versus digital mammography.
Methods: Electronic databases including PubMed and Embase were searched by two independent reviewers. Furthermore, the search was conducted in databases and repositories of grey literature such as Open Grey. The databases of the systematic review and clinical trials such as Cochrane libraries and the Center for Reviews and dissemination were screened for eligible primary studies. An electronic search with keywords in the titles and abstracts of these articles was conducted to identify eligible studies. Based on the primary screening results the irrelevant studies, duplicates and reviews were excluded. Finally, four eligible studies were included in this review.
Results: A comparison between film mammography and digital mammography was done by estimation of the sensitivity and specificity of each in a Cohort study done by Pisano et al., 2005, in which the sensitivity ranged between 35% - 38% when using film mammography, and between 38%- 49% when using digital mammography. While the specificity was 97%-98% for film mammography and 79% for digital mammography. The cancer detection rate was evaluated in two studies. The first study was a Prospective study done on 43,429 women, aged between 45–69 years. The cancer detection rate was 41% when using film mammography.
Conclusions: Digital mammography offers other advantages over film mammography easier access to images and computer-assisted diagnosis, improved means of transmission, retrieval, and storage of images, and the use of a lower average dose of radiation without a compromise in diagnostic accuracy.
