October 2, 2008 - In a study that used Hologic’s R2 computer-aided detection (CAD) system, researchers found that “Single reading with computer-aided detection could be an alternative to double reading and could improve the rate of detection of cancer from screening mammograms read by a single reader.”
The study, which will published October 16, 2008 in The New England Journal of Medicine and was published in the online version of the Journal yesterday (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0803545]), was a prospective, multi-center clinical trial, comparing the cancer detection rate for single reading of screening mammograms with CAD input versus double reading without CAD support.
Interpretation by two readers (double reading) rather than one reader is known to improve the cancer detection rate. The study’s authors stated that “Where single reading is standard practice, computer-aided detection has the potential to improve cancer detection to the level achieved by double reading.”
In the study, lead author Dr. Fiona Gilbert and her colleagues in the United Kingdom analyzed the screening results from 31,057 women undergoing routine screening by film mammography and found that a single reader with Hologic’s R2 CAD system produced comparable cancer detection rates (87.2 percent) to double reading (87.7 percent) without CAD. Although single reading with CAD produced a higher recall rate (3.9 percent) than double reading (3.4 percent), they concluded that despite this difference, “Single reading with computer-aided detection could be an alternative to double reading and could improve the rate of detection of cancer from screening mammograms read by a single reader.”
“Double reading is a method for increasing cancer detection commonly used in European screening programs. However, it is used by few practices in the United States because it is time-consuming and because of a shortage of radiologists focused on breast imaging,” said Ronald A. Castellino, MD, FACR, Chief Medical Officer for Hologic. “These results indicate that in the United States, where single reading of mammograms is most common, Hologic’s R2 CAD system can provide an improvement in cancer detection rates comparable to those achieved with double reading. This important study, combined with prior published research studies, further supports the use of the R2 CAD system to increase cancer detection.”
For more information: www.hologic.com
June 06, 2023 
