The News
Technology flunks at mammograms
By Denise Gellene Los Angeles Times
Article Launched: 04/05/2007 01:00:00 AM MDT
An increasingly popular technology that uses computers to scan mammograms actually produces worse results than human reviewers using their eyes and experience, according to a new study.
Radiologists using computer-assisted detection software were more likely to interpret a benign growth as potentially cancerous, researchers said in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The false-positive readings led to additional scans and needless biopsies, adding $550 million to the annual cost of breast cancer screening in the United States, researchers said.
In addition, the computerized detection system, known as CAD, did not help radiologists find more real cancers, according to the report.

The Research
Read the research behind this story in the New England Journal of Medicine.