Currently, only eight percent of breast imaging facilities use digital mammography. UI Hospitals and Clinics is the only facility in Iowa with digital mammography capability.

Specifically, the Digital Mammography Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST) found that digital mammography performed significantly better than film mammography for screening women under age 50, pre- and peri-menopausal women, and women with dense breast tissue. The study suggests that women in these groups are likely to benefit from earlier detection of their breast cancer if they undergo digital mammography rather than film mammography.

"These results are encouraging," said Laurie Fajardo, M.D., UI Hospitals and Clinics radiologist and professor and head of radiology at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, and the lead investigator at the UI. "This technology will improve screening for breast cancer."

Digital mammography images are recorded electronically on a computer rather than on film. This means that specialized software can be used to enhance and manipulate the images to help diagnose cancers. Compared to standard film mammograms, digital mammography images also are easier to store, retrieve and share among physicians. Digital mammograms also use less radiation than film mammography, although the doses used in standard mammography are low and considered very safe.

DMIST enrolled nearly 49,500 participants at 33 centers nationwide and in Canada. The UI enrolled nearly 3,000 women. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted by the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN). The results were reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Although the DMIST study does not prove that improved detection for certain women will lead to saved lives, the cancers that were detected by digital mammography and not by film were the types of cancers that can lead to death.

For more information:

Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine

American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN)