What every surgical oncologist should know about digital mammography

This article reviews the available information on digital mammography for s urgeons who care for patients with breast cancer. The limitations of the cu rrent film-based technology and why digital mammography promises to improve breast cancer detection and breast lesion diagnosis are described. The bas ics of digital imaging technology are reviewed, including a description of image contrast and spatial resolution and its variance from currently avail able clinical digital mammography systems. The results of clinical trials c ompleted to date are reported. An upcoming large screening trial for digita l mammography, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, is described. Fu ture technological developments, including improvements in softcopy display , image processing, computer-aided detection and diagnosis (CADD), tomosynt hesis, and digital subtraction mammography (DSM), are briefly discussed. (C ) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.