Do non-specific minimal signs in a biennial mammographic breast cancer screening programme need further diagnostic assessment?
RM Maes, DJ Dronkers, JH Hendriks, MA Thijssen and HW Nab Department of Radiology, Radboud University Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Mammographic features such as small vague densities, indefinable microcalcifications, subtle architectural distortions, alone or in combination, are non-specific appearances for breast cancer. These features sometimes precede malignancy and a decisive strategy on how to deal with non-specific minimal signs in a breast cancer screening programme is therefore desirable. After studying the prevalence of these signs in a Dutch Breast Cancer Screening Centre and estimating the risk of participants with these signs acquiring breast cancer within 2 years, we have developed such a strategy. Non-specific minimal signs were seen on the mammograms of 53 of 500 (10.6%) participants, aged 50-70 years, in this programme. After retrospective analysis of the mammograms of 254 patients with screen-detected or interval carcinoma, non-specific minimal signs were detec