Image Quality Requirements for Digital Mammography in Breast Cancer Screening

Mammography is currently considered to be the best tool for early detection of breast cancer. The target groups of most of the population-based screening programmes are women aged between 50 and 65 years. A recent study has also shown mortality benefit in the age group 40-49 (Hellquist, et al, 2010). Screen-film mammography has been to date the traditional test for breast screening having been shown its efficacy in reducing breast cancer mortality in large randomised trials (Duffy, et al, 2006). The potential advantages of digital mammography over screen-film techniques have been the subject of several investigations which provides an improved diagnosis in dense breasts and an increase in breast cancer detection rate (Pisano et al, 2006; Hendrick et al, 2010).