Mammographic detection of early breast cancer. Ten years' experience in a community hospital.

Mammography is currently the most effective method for detecting early breast cancer. In one community hospital during the decade 1974 through 1983, 35% of 415 cases of breast cancer were discovered by xeromammography alone, with a false-positive interpretation rate of 65% and a false-negative rate of 11.1%. Mammography was responsible for detecting an increasing number of smaller cancers with fewer axillary metastases. Such lesions have the most favourable five- and ten-year survival rates. Much lower detection rates of preclinical breast cancer have been reported from other community hospitals.