Computers May Not Help in Mammograms

Apr 06, 12:00 PM

Current Headlines: By Jeff Donn THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON -- A good mammogram reader may do just as well at spotting cancers without expensive new computer systems often used for a second opinion, a new study suggests.

Computerized mammography, now used for about a third of the nation's mammograms, too often finds harmless spots that lead to false scares, researchers found. That conflicts with earlier studies showing benefit from the systems.

"It looks like computer-aided detection might not be working like people thought it would," said lead researcher Dr. Joshua Fenton, a family doctor at the University of California, Davis, in Sacramento.

The findings, which appear today in the New England Journal of Medicine, touch on a rapidly spreading technology first marketed in 1998.

Known as computer-aided detection or CAD, it consists of a computer coupled with software that identifies and marks suspicious spots.

When mammograms are taken, radiologists read X-rays and make their own judgments. But they can then double-check with the computer system to see if they have missed anything worth examining further.

There usually isn't. Still, some studies have shown that CAD can turn up 10 percent to 20 percent more cancers.

The researchers in this five-year study analyzed mammograms from medical centers in Washington state, Colorado and New Hampshire. Seven of 43 centers used CAD. The mammograms came from 222,135 women and included 2,351 with a cancer diagnosis within a year of their tests.

The computerized method showed no clear capability to turn up more cancer cases.

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