3
TITLE
BIRADS 3 management in the french breast cancer screening program:
overview in a French county
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Breast cancer screening is leading to discover probably benign lesions who will be
assessed “ACR 3” and followed-up according to the French translation of the American BI-RADS
lexicon. To our knowledge, there are very few studies on “ACR 3” findings and their management in
France. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of “ACR 3” lesions and their
characteristics in the breast cancer screening in the county of Indre-et-Loire, France. We also studied
the patient compliance and the radiologists involved.
Materials and Methods: This retrospective study identified lesions prospectively classified BI-
RADS 3 in asymptomatic women participating in breast cancer screening from 9/22/2003 to
12/31/2012. Surveillance protocol for BI-RADS 3 lesions included 4/6-month work-up, 12-month work-
up and 24-month bilateral imaging, with subsequent screening. Data were abstracted from the
county’s cancer screening registry.
Results: Six thousand two hundred seventeen lesions on 228 504 screenings had BIRADS 3
assessment, representing 2.7% of all screening examinations. Microcalcifications (38%) and masses
(34%) were the most frequent. There was significant difference between mammography anteriority
and BI-RADS 3 assessment and between breast density and BI-RADS 3 assesment. Biopsy revealed
158 cancers (cancer yield of 2.5%). At 24-month follow-up, 69% of the subjects were compliant with
the recommendation but only 26% at 12-month. The annual mean of mammography was 457 by
radiologist (IC95%: 375-540) with a BI-RADS 3 yield of 3.16% (from 0.97% to 11.5%).
Conclusion: Our study found a rate of ACR 3 in agreement with the literature and a rate of
cancers discreetly higher than 2%. “ACR” classification was overall well used in spite of 4% of
“architectural distortions” and a notable variation of the rate of ACR 3 between radiologists. These
results and the regular evolutions of the BI-RADS justify the support of training and a regular
evaluation of the practices. It confirmed the poor patient compliance reinforcing the need for a better
education of the patients and a better management of the follow-up.
Key words: - BI-RADS 3
- Breast cancer screening
- Inter-observer agreement
- Compliance