[Review of the scientific literature on the use of automated breast ultrasound for screening]

Abstract

Several technological developments have been carried out recently to improve the effectiveness of breast cancer screening. Most of them have emerged as a complementary method to mammography. Automated breast ultrasound is one of these technologies. The objective of this study is to provide an overview on guidelines and recommenda-tions related to the application of automated breast ultrasound as a screening modality and to summarize the scien-tific literature. Targeted literature review was performed to collect information. We searched in publicly available databases for guidelines and recommendations as well as scientific publications on screening and early detection. We found substantial amount of information about automated breast ultrasound mainly for patients with dense breast; however, breast cancer screening guidelines have not yet incorporated this technology. 9 clinical studies were in-cluded in the review, most of them were single-arm studies with relatively short follow-up time. Most of them were performed in the USA. Results were presented mainly for short-term outcomes of breast cancer screening: sensitiv-ity, specificity, tumor detection rate and recall rate. The opportunity for retrospective evaluation of the images and the reproducibility are considered the most important advantages. Evidence suggest that the cancer detection rate can be improved compared to mammography alone in women with dense breast. The main disadvantages of this technology are the high recall and false positive rates. Further scientific evidence is required to reduce uncertainty related to the use of automated breast ultrasound for breast cancer screening.

Keywords: automated breast ultrasound; automatizált emlőultrahang; breast cancer screening; early detection of breast cancer; emlőrákszűrés; irodalmi áttekintés; korai emlőrák-felismerés; literature review.