Effectiveness of Noninvasive Diagnostic Tests for Breast Abnormalities. Comparative Effectiveness Review Number 2

摘要

Breast cancer is the second most common malignancy in women. The American Cancer Society estimated that in the United States in 2005, 212,930 women would be newly diagnosed as having breast cancer and there would be 40,870 deaths due to this disease. Because early breast cancer is asymptomatic, the only way to detect it is through screening. Mammography is a widely accepted method for breast cancer screening. As a screening test, mammography is used to rule out cancer by missing very few cases of cancer--i.e., by having a low false negative rate. As a result, most women who have an abnormal mammogram do not have cancer.