Digital Breast Tomosynthesis vs. Digital Mammography: A National Multicenter Trial

This prospective national multicenter multivendor trial aims at determining the impact of the novel technique Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) in the assessment and screening for breast cancer. Mammography is the primary imaging modality for the early detection of clinically occult breast cancer.

Despite advances in mammographic technique, mammography is still limited with regard to both sensitivity and specificity. In the majority of cases these limitations arise from the masking of subtle breast cancer lesions by overlapping breast tissue.

DBT is a novel technique that tries to overcome these limitations by performing a 3D-reconstruction of breast tissue from multiple low-dose digital mammographic images acquired in several planes in a 15 to 50 degree angle.

Early studies indicate an advantage of DBT compared to the standard Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) in terms of an improvement of specificity without cutback in sensitivity.

Controversy continues over the use of DBT in combination with FFDM or as a standalone screening method without concomitant 2D imaging. Unfortunately, the peer-reviewed publications evaluating DBT are limited and consist of single institution studies with a small number of participants.