Saving Women's Lives

The outlook for women with breast cancer has improved in recent years.Due to the combination of improved treatments and the benefits of mammographyscreening, breast cancer mortality has decreased steadily since1989. Yet breast cancer remains a major problem, second only to lungcancer as a leading cause of death from cancer for women. To date, nomeans to prevent breast cancer has been discovered and experience hasshown that treatments are most effective when a cancer is detected early,before it has spread to other tissues. These two facts suggest that the mosteffective way to continue reducing the death toll from breast cancer isimproved early detection and diagnosis.Building on the 2001 report Mammography and Beyond, this new booknot only examines ways to improve implementation and use of new andcurrent breast cancer detection technologies but also evaluates the need todevelop tools that identify women who would benefit most from earlydetection screening. Saving Women's Lives: Strategies for Improving BreastCancer Detection and Diagnosis encourages more research that integratesthe development, validation, and analysis of the types of technologies inclinical practice that promote improved risk identification techniques. Inthis way, methods and technologies that improve detection and diagnosiscan be more effectively developed and implemented.Table of ContentsFront MatterExecutive Summary1 Introduction2 Benefits and Limitations of Mammography3 Improving Breast Cancer Screening Services4 Understanding Breast Cancer Risk5 Biologically-Based Technologies6 The Necessary Environment for Research and Development7 Translating New Technologies into Improved Patient Outcomes8 RecommendationsAppendix A: Breast Cancer Technology OverviewAppendix B: Workshop AgendasAppendix C: ROC Analysis: Key Statistical Tool for Evaluating Detection TechnologiesAppendix D: Common Weaknesses in Study DesignsGlossaryIndex