Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun;32(6):4036-4045.
doi: 10.1007/s00330-022-08617-6. Epub 2022 Mar 8.

Breast cancer screening in women with extremely dense breasts recommendations of the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI)

Ritse M Mann  1   2 , Alexandra Athanasiou  3 , Pascal A T Baltzer  4 , Julia Camps-Herrero  5 , Paola Clauser  4 , Eva M Fallenberg  6 , Gabor Forrai  7 , Michael H Fuchsjäger  8 , Thomas H Helbich  4 , Fleur Killburn-Toppin  9 , Mihai Lesaru  10 , Pietro Panizza  11 , Federica Pediconi  12 , Ruud M Pijnappel  13   14 , Katja Pinker  4   15 , Francesco Sardanelli  16   17 , Tamar Sella  18 , Isabelle Thomassin-Naggara  19 , Sophia Zackrisson  20 , Fiona J Gilbert  9 , Christiane K Kuhl  21 ; European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI)
Affiliations

Breast cancer screening in women with extremely dense breasts recommendations of the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI)

Ritse M Mann et al. Eur Radiol. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Breast density is an independent risk factor for the development of breast cancer and also decreases the sensitivity of mammography for screening. Consequently, women with extremely dense breasts face an increased risk of late diagnosis of breast cancer. These women are, therefore, underserved with current mammographic screening programs. The results of recent studies reporting on contrast-enhanced breast MRI as a screening method in women with extremely dense breasts provide compelling evidence that this approach can enable an important reduction in breast cancer mortality for these women and is cost-effective. Because there is now a valid option to improve breast cancer screening, the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI) recommends that women should be informed about their breast density. EUSOBI thus calls on all providers of mammography screening to share density information with the women being screened. In light of the available evidence, in women aged 50 to 70 years with extremely dense breasts, the EUSOBI now recommends offering screening breast MRI every 2 to 4 years. The EUSOBI acknowledges that it may currently not be possible to offer breast MRI immediately and everywhere and underscores that quality assurance procedures need to be established, but urges radiological societies and policymakers to act on this now. Since the wishes and values of individual women differ, in screening the principles of shared decision-making should be embraced. In particular, women should be counselled on the benefits and risks of mammography and MRI-based screening, so that they are capable of making an informed choice about their preferred screening method. KEY POINTS: • The recommendations in Figure 1 summarize the key points of the manuscript.

Keywords: Breast density; Decision-making, shared; Early detection of cancer; Magnetic resonance imaging; Mammography.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors are members of the current executive board of the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI). The document reflects the current position of EUSOBI. The authors report no relevant disclosures to the contents of this work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
EUSOBI summary recommendations on screening women with extremely dense breasts
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Boyd NF, Guo H, Martin LJ et al (2007) Mammographic density and the risk and detection of breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 356(3):227–236 - PubMed
    1. D’Orsi CJ, Sickles EA, Mendelson EB et al (2013) ACR BI-RADS ® Atlas, Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System. American College of Radiology, Reston, VA
    1. Sprague BL, Kerlikowske K, Bowles EJA et al (2019) Trends in clinical breast density assessment from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. J Natl Cancer Inst 111(6):629–632 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brandt KR, Scott CG, Ma L et al (2016) Comparison of clinical and automated breast density measurements: implications for risk prediction and supplemental screening. Radiology. 279(3):710–719 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jeffers AM, Sieh W, Lipson JA et al (2017) Breast cancer risk and mammographic density assessed with semiautomated and fully automated methods and BI-RADS. Radiology. 282(2):348–355 - PMC - PubMed