Model helps diagnose breast cancer

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MADISON, Wis., April 6 (UPI) -- U.S. radiologists have developed a computer-based model that aids them in discriminating between benign and malignant breast lesions -- or tumors.

Radiologists and industrial engineers, led by Dr. Elizabeth S. Burnside, Oguzhan Alagoz and Jagpreet Chhatwal -- all of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine in Madison -- said their model has the potential to avoid delay in breast cancer diagnosis and reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies, which would benefit many patients.

"The computer based model was designed to help the radiologist calculate breast cancer risk based on abnormality descriptors like mass shape; mass margins; mass density; mass size; calcification shape and distribution," Burnside and Chhatwal said in a statement.

"When the radiologist combined his/her assessment with the computer model the radiologist was able to detect 41 more cancers than when they didn't use the model. The model was created based upon findings of 48,744 mammograms in a breast imaging reporting database and found that the use of hormones and a family history of breast cancer did not contribute significant predictive ability in this context."

The study appears in the American Journal of Roentgenology.