Screening mammography: the Mount Sinai BreastCheck experience

Early detection can result in a decrease in the death rate from breast cancer. Screening mammography is the most important modality available to discover early so-called "minimal" cancer. In an effort to make screening mammography more available to the women of north central Connecticut, Mount Sinai Hospital, a community based, university-affiliated hospital initiated a screening program five years ago. During the four-year interval on which we are reporting, we have screened almost 15,000 women using a mobile van. Seventy-seven cancers were discovered in this screened population, with a detection rate of five cancers per 1,000. Our biopsy rate was 1.5% with a positive predictive value of 34%. Sixty-one percent of the tumors discovered were so-called "minimal" cancers and only 12 of the 77 patients had positive lymph nodes.