Tomosynthesis as a screening tool for breast cancer: A systematic review

• Using tomosynthesis with digital mammography increases breast cancer detection.
• Tomosynthesis has improved detection for women with extremely dense breasts.
• Tomosynthesis reduces the need for ultrasound to address mammography limitations.
• When Tomosynthesis is combined with mammography, recall rates are reduced.

BackgroundMammography is an important screening tool for reducing breast cancer mortality. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) can potentially be integrated with mammography to aid in cancer detection.MethodUsing the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic review of current literature was conducted to identify issues relating to the use of tomosynthesis as a screening tool together with mammography.FindingsUsing tomosynthesis with digital mammography (DM) increases breast cancer detection, reduces recall rates and increases the positive predictive value of those cases recalled. Invasive cancer detection is significantly improved in tomosynthesis compared to mammography, and has improved success for women with heterogeneous or extremely dense breasts.ConclusionTomosynthesis reduces some limitations of mammography at the time of screening that until recently were most often addressed by ultrasound at later work-up. Tomosynthesis can potentially be adopted alongside mammography as a screening tool.