Popular Mammography Tool Disappoints

Computer-aided detection (CAD) does not improve the accuracy of mammograms, a new study suggests. Most mammograms in the United States use CAD. Researchers analyzed 1.6 million mammograms performed on over 680,000 women in 7 states from 1998 to 2006. CAD did not improve the detection of invasive breast cancer. It also did not increase the chance of detecting breast cancer at an earlier stage. However, the false-positive rate increased from 8.1% to 8.6% with CAD, meaning women had a greater chance of being called back for further testing. The study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. HealthDay News wrote about it July 27.