Further improve prevention. The High Health Authority (HAS) recommends that breast cancer screening be carried out with 3D mammography, also called tomosynthesis, and not just 2D, in a press release published this Friday.
“The HAS recommends the integration of mammography by tomosynthesis in the organized screening of breast cancer,” he announces.
It specifies that this change must be made “whenever (3D) is systematically associated with the reconstruction of a synthetic 2D image (3D + 2Ds)”.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and is the leading cause of cancer death with 12,000 deaths per year.
A request from the National Cancer Institute
The health authority responded this Friday to a request from the National Cancer Institute (INCa). The latter had contacted the HAS to assess the relevance of generalizing 3D mammograms to all organized screening sessions for breast cancer.
A first publication followed in 2019. The health authority revealed part of its analytical work dedicated to the tomosynthesis technique. The second part is published this Friday.
The HAS indicates that it has carried out a study comparing the use of the classic mammography technique, known as 2D, with 3D, each one separately. He also studied the use of the association of 2D and 3D and also compared it with the association of 3D with synthetic image reconstruction (2D).
A technique already proven in high-risk patients
3D mammography is “a mammography technique that makes it possible to obtain a digital image reconstituted in three dimensions from images of the breast obtained under different sections (or projections)”, explains the HAS.
This detection technique has already been widely used in France since 2009. But it is mainly carried out in patients considered to be at high risk of developing the disease.
With this new recommendation, the HAS intends to generalize this type of imaging that “has shown beneficial results” and would further improve the prevention of breast cancer.
Breast cancer screening every two years is proposed and recommended for all women between the ages of 50 and 74, without any particular risk factor. It is fully covered by health insurance.
Source: BFM TV
