Diagnostic Accuracy of Lightscanning and Mammography in Women with Dense Breasts

Abstract

The diagnostic accuracy of lightscanning and mammography in 610 breasts with mammographically dense parenchymal patterns was investigated. Lightscanning identified 31 out of 36 cancers and mammography 32. Lightscanning and mammography were in agreement in 28 cases of cancer. One noninvasive lobular carcinoma was not identified by either modality. Four cancers were not cor rectly identified with lightscanning alone and 3 cancers with mam mography alone. Of the 574 breasts without cancer, lightscanning falsely denoted 101 (18%) as possibly being cancerous (false-posi tives). The corresponding figure for mammography was 25 (4%). Thus, lightscanning, as performed in this study, has the same sensi tivity as mammography in detecting cancer in mammographically dense breasts. However, its usefulness is limited by a low predictive value of a positive test (high rate of false-positives).

Characterization of female breasts in vivo by time-resolved and spectroscopic measurements in the near infrared spectroscopy

“…Of particular interest in this area is the transillumination of the female breast for a preventive checkup. 6,7 Because of the potential hazards associated with x-ray exposure, harmless light-screening techniques may be an alternative to conventional x-ray mammography, or they may at least provide additional diagnostic information.…”