Malmö Breast Tomosynthesis Screening Trial, MBTST

Mammography is the established method in breast cancer screening. However, the sensitivity of digital mammography (DM) for the detection of breast cancer is less than optimal, up to 30% of all cancers are missed. There is a call for more individualized screening, since DM has reduced sensitivity especially in women with dense breasts. A 3D-mammography has been developed by several vendors, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) and is being introduced in clinical settings.

To get a more definitive assessment of the value and cost of DBT as a screening modality large scale population based trials are necessary. Our present study, the Malmö Breast Tomosynthesis Screening Trial, MBTST, is the only prospective, population-based trial investigating DBT alone compared to DM and may hence pave the way for screening evidence with DBT.

The recruitment of 15,000 women in Malmö was completed in March 2015. The screening cohort will be followed over time. The overall aim of this project is to investigate different aspects of DBT as a single screening modality compared with screening DM among women aged 40-74 years in Malmö, Sweden.

Objectives

Primary objective:
- to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of breast cancer detection with DBT compared to DM in population based screening.

Secondary objectives:
- to investigate the biological characteristics of the cancers in the trial by mode of detection
- to investigate the cost-effectiveness of DBT in screening