State of the art breast screening trial for Guildford women

The Royal Surrey County Hospital and the Jarvis Breast Screening and Diagnostic Centre in Guildford are taking part in a £1.6 million multi-centre trial of a new breast imaging machine, which has the potential to detect breast cancer earlier than before. 

The trial, led by Fiona Gilbert, professor of radiology at the University of Cambridge will invite around 7,000 women aged between 47 and 73 in Guildford, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Manchester and London to take part in the three year study.

 The study, known as ‘TOMMY’ uses a technique called digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) with a new imaging machine which takes 3D images.

Current breast screening mammography takes 2D images of the breast but the new technique will allow clinicians to see a 3D image. This allows the structure of the breast to be seen more clearly and decreases the problem of overlapping tissues. Women who are recalled after an abnormal screening mammogram will be invited to participate in the multi-centre trial. Participants will receive a standard mammogram as well as a DBT examination.

The research project will compare the accuracy of radiologists viewing 2D images with 3D images. Improved reading accuracy with 3D images may reduce the number of women without cancer who are recalled to the assessment clinic for further tests following routine screening. Greater accuracy may also help to increase the number of small cancers detected. 

Dr Julie Cooke, Clinical Director at the Jarvis Centre which is run by community health provider. Surrey Community Health, said: “Preliminary results have been encouraging and we are pleased to be taking part in this large national study to assess the role of this new technology in routine screening practice.”

So far, the Jarvis has recruited 470 women and is hoping to complete recruitment in 2012. Women have been willing to take part in the study with a recruitment rate of over 90 per cent of those invited to participate. 

Professor Ken Young in the Medical Physics Department at the Royal Surrey hospital has a lead role in ensuring the quality of the seven clinical systems at sites across the UK and in designing software to help run the clinical studies. 

He said “This new technology is one of a number of new digital techniques that should lead to improvements in breast cancer imaging over the next few years.” This latest study is in addition to a £2.5m, 5 year research programme called OPTIMAM for breast cancer imaging research at the Royal Surrey hospital lead by Professor Young. OPTIMAM is funded by Cancer Research UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Together with the department’s role as the national centre for the physics of mammography these grants add to Guildford’s reputation as the UK’s leading centre for research into technology for imaging breast cancers with X-rays.