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| |  DG DISPATCH - DoD: Computer-assisted Diagnosis Can Reduce Risk Of Missing Breast Cancers By Ed Susman Special to DG News
ATLANTA, GA -- June 11, 2000 -- When attempting to determine if certain specks on radiology film are cancer -- especially if the mammogram is of a young woman -- can be made a bit easier if the doctor allows a computer to offer its "second opinion". Doctors said that a new study has found that computer-assisted diagnosis can reduce the risk of missing a breast cancer on a mammography film by more than 50 percent. "We believe the increasingly positive results with computer-assisted diagnosis demonstrate it can serve as a second opinion for traditional screening mammograms," said Kunio Doi, MD, professor of radiology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Doi said that the computer scans a mammogram with a laser and then highlights areas of microcalcification -- which appear as tiny white dots on the mammogram -- or areas of increased mass -- which sometimes are missed by even experienced radiologists. It takes the computer about 10 seconds to complete its tasks, he said. At the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Meeting, in Atlanta, GA, Dr. Doi said the computer can’t replace the radiologist or find tumors that are invisible on the mammogram. It can help the doctor, however, by pointing out suspicious areas -- especially in the mammograms of young women whose dense breast tissue may not readily reveal signs of tumors. In the study of a computer-assisted diagnostic prototype, Dr. Doi and colleagues reviewed the mammograms of 12,670 women who came to their radiologist for routine breast cancer screening. Of those women 79 developed breast cancer and 23 of those cancers were missed by the radiologist. When the computer went through the charts, it pointed out 12 of the tumors the doctors originally missed. "What this means," Dr. Doi said, "is that in some cases breast cancer could be detected at an ever earlier stage. In this study the computed detected 52 percent of the cases missed by the radiologists." Lt. Col. Kenneth Bertram, director of Congressionally-directed medical research programs, Ft. Detrick, Md., said, "The ability of computers to look over thousands of images can be an additional help that can save the lives of women. This is a step in the right direction."
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