Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium receives $17M to study breast screening

Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC)—a research collaboration between several universities, Advocate Health Care and Kaiser Permanente Washington—has received a $17 million grant renewal from the National Cancer Institute to study the effectiveness of digital mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis and breast MRI as breast screening tools.

Diana Miglioretti, PhD, a researcher and dean's professor in biostatistics from UC Davis Health, is a co-leader of the consortium’s efforts and said this research will help women receive the best care possible.

“With so many different breast imaging approaches available, it’s important that each woman receives the most appropriate modality at the most appropriate time,” Miglioretti said in a statement. “With this renewal, we can continue to evaluate how a woman’s risk factors influence screening outcomes and how they can be used to make decisions about when to start screening, how often to screen, and which modalities to use.”

Another BCSC program co-leader, Anna Tosteson, ScD, James J. Carroll Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, provided additional insight into why the team’s work is so crucial.

“The BCSC’s research is critically important due to rapid innovations in breast cancer screening and new laws affecting breast cancer screening delivery in more than half of the states in the U.S.,” she said in the same statement.

In June 2016, Miglioretti was interviewed by Radiology Business. That interview can be read here.