Volumetric Breast Density Estimation from Full-Field Digital Mammograms : A Validation Study

Abstract

Objectives: To objectively evaluate automatic volumetric breast density assessment in Full-Field Digital Mammograms (FFDM) using measurements obtained from breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Material and Methods: A commercially available method for volumetric breast density estimation on FFDM is evaluated by comparing volume estimates obtained from 186 FFDM exams including mediolateral oblique (MLO) and cranial-caudal (CC) views to objective reference standard measurements obtained from MRI. Results: Volumetric measurements obtained from FFDM show high correlation with MRI data. Pearson's correlation coefficients of 0.93, 0.97 and 0.85 were obtained for volumetric breast density, breast volume and fibroglandular tissue volume, respectively. Conclusions: Accurate volumetric breast density assessment is feasible in Full-Field Digital Mammograms and has potential to be used in objective breast cancer risk models and personalized screening ; The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7 under grant agreement no 306088 and has been supported by the Spanish Science and Innovation grant nb. TIN2012-37171-C02-01. Albert Gubern-Merida holds a FPU grant AP2009-2835. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript