Computer-Aided Detection for Mammography Seems to Offer Few Benefits

By Jenni Whalen

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Jaye Elizabeth Hefner, MD

Computer-aided detection does not improve mammography performance, according to a registry-based study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The accuracy of 500,000 digital screening mammography exams using computer-aided detection (CAD) was compared with the accuracy of 125,000 screenings without CAD.

Computer-aided detection did not improve diagnostic performance across any of the measured metrics. Mammography sensitivity was 85% with CAD and 87% without; specificity approached 92% with and without CAD. There was also no difference in cancer detection rates between the two groups, suggesting that CAD offered few established benefits.

A commentator concludes: "The lesson of CAD is that broad societal investment in new medical technologies should occur only after large-sample evaluations prove their real-world effectiveness and justify their costs."