Digital mammography provides radiologists with advantages in diagnosing cancer for some women, a large study by the American College of Radiology concluded.

Results of the study, released at the ACR's fall meeting, suggest that digital mammography is more accurate in assessing risks of women younger than 50, with radiographically dense breasts or who are premenopausal or perimenopausal.

The results indicated that film-based mammography and digital mammography provide overall similar diagnostic accuracy. Previous studies had not found significant differences between the two modalities.

Proponents of digital imaging found the results encouraging. Digital mammography helps radiologists by enabling them to use image processing that allows the degree of contrast to be manipulated. As a result, they're able to increase contrast in dense areas of the breast that otherwise would exhibit low contrast.

The Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial is one of the largest tests of digital mammography to date. It spanned four years and involved more than 49,500 women in 35 centers in the United States and Canada.

The study's findings could increase the use of digital mammography among groups of women who could directly benefit from it, said Vincent Polkus, mammography advanced applications product manager for GE Healthcare.

"The use of digital mammography will directly translate into a reduction from breast cancer," he predicted, estimating that digital mammography's advantages apply to population groups that comprise as many as 40 percent of U.S. women.

Polkus predicted that there will be increasing demand for digital mammography, and healthcare organizations will need to be convinced that larger upfront expenses for those devices will be offset by other savings – on film, processing and storage – over the length of the investment.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association said the study indicates that digital mammography "is a win-win technology that significantly improves cancer detection in key groups of women and makes big improvements in productivity because digital images are easier to access, adjust, store and retrieve," said Bob Britain, vice president of medical products for NEMA.

Britain also contends that, "Digital mammography can also help move the U.S. healthcare system into the age of IT, the electronic health record, and the efficiencies that information technologies offer."