Breast Imaging Market Resumes Steady Growth

October 7, 2011

Replacement of these older analog mammography
machines in part has fueled growth of the breast
imaging device market. (Photo courtesy of
National Institutes of Health)

The market for breast imaging devices is expected to recover and continue growing at compound annual growth rate of 10 percent, reaching over $1 billion by 2017, a market analysis shows.

The report prepared by iData Research observes that a strong trend for faster, higher quality imaging has resulted in an almost entire replacement of older analog mammography with more advanced systems.  In addition, emergence of breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) as a supplement to mammography and ultrasound is the fastest growing segment of the breast imaging market. Together they form the basis of a projected double-digit growth of the market. (Link to published site)

CAD software serves as a "second
read" for screening mammography,
marking image patterns for the
radiologist to review. (Image
courtesy of Hologic, Inc.)

Real World Study Questions Effectiveness of CAD  Mammography

Computer-aided detection tools add to the cost of screening mammography for breast cancer but add little in terms of finding undetected harmful tumors, while increasing the number of false positives, a new study shows.

In what may be the largest study of real-world use of CAD mammography, researchers with the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium led by Dr. Joshua Fenton analyzed 1.6 million mammograms from 680,000 women in seven states.  Their study was published online today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. (Link to published site)