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Imaging Technology Helps Identify Hard-to-Detect Breast Cancers

Posted on: Tuesday, 30 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Aug. 31--NASHUA -- A new study has confirmed that locally-based iCAD's computer-aided detection technology does help identify hard-to-detect breast cancers.

ICAD's Second Look CAD system was used in the "Evaluation of Breast Cancer with a Computer-Aided Detection System by Mammographic Appearance and Histopathology" study published in the Sept. 1 edition of Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

Study findings revealed that CAD technology effectively identified 98 percent of microcalcifications, 95 percent of invasive lobular carcinomas, 89 percent of mixed mass/microcalcification lesions and 84 percent of masses in 273 women with confirmed breast cancer.

"Realizing the significant role that medical research plays in our health-care system, iCAD applauds the patients and doctors who participate in such an important process," said W. Scott Parr, president and CEO at iCAD, in a prepared statement. "ICAD was privileged to take part in a study that further established the benefits of CAD for the early identification of breast cancer."

The study, based out of the Department of Radiology at the George Washington University Medical Center, concluded that CAD represents a useful tool for the detection of breast cancer.

"On the basis of lesion histopathology, CAD showed a higher detection rate for DCIS and invasive lobular carcinomas," the study said. "This indicates that CAD has an important role in reducing the occurrence of missed cancers, even with difficult to detect lesions, such as invasive lobular carcinoma."

Dr. Rachel F. Brem, director of Breast Imaging at the George Washington University Medical Center, and the study's principal investigator, said the study demonstrates the effectiveness of CAD in cancers that are often difficult to detect, such as invasive lobular carcinomas.

The study was conducted over a four-year span from three institutions collecting 1,000 consecutive screen-detected, biopsy-proven breast carcinomas. Every third tumor was selected until 275 consecutive carcinoma tumors were identified at random for system testing.

Due to incomplete tumor data from two patients, the study was conducted on 273 carcinomas. From a consecutive series of 494 women with normal screenings, 155 mammograms were randomly selected for the study. For the 265 patients with cancer who had age data available, the mean age was 60.6 years and for the 154 women with normal mammograms with age data available, the mean age was 58.9.

The American Cancer Society expects an estimated 211,240 new cases of breast cancer in 2005.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.

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ICAD,

Source: The Telegraph

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