Lightscanning versus mammography for the detection of breast cancer in screening and clinical practice. A Swedish multicenter study.

State of the art lightscanning of the breast was tested against mammography in 2568 women in a Swedish multicenter study. The study was in two parts. One was in women with symptoms from the breasts (the clinical study) comprising 3178 examined breasts with 198 cancers; the other in asymptomatic women (the screening study) comprising 1909 examined breasts with 126 cancers. In women with symptoms from the breasts, lightscanning did not contribute to clinical examination and mammography. In the screening situation, it was poor to pick up small cancers. Mammography alone falsely diagnosed cancer in 6.9% of the patients whereas lightscan falsely diagnosed cancer in 19.1%. Lightscan was not better than mammography in young women. The study shows that lightscanning in its current form is inferior to standard mammography.