Breast cancer screening based on mammography (MG) has had a major impact on reducing mortality at affordable cost. However, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and the lack of sensitivity of mammography, especially in women with dense breasts, need to be addressed to improve screening. More effective screening cannot be achieved with the generalised use of MG for all the population; personalisation is required where the density of a womans breasts or increased cancer risk is assessed prior to determining whether or not additional imaging (i.e. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 3D ultrasound (ABUS), or tomosynthesis (DBT)) is necessary. Hence, the question is no longer if the screening regimens will be personalised, but mainly how this can be efficiently implemented.
The Smarter project aims to develop and evaluate novel imaging tools that can be integrated into the screening workflow to steer image acquisition and guide the selection of appropriate personalised screening protocols; and to process imaging data in an intelligent way to minimise interpretation time. Tools will be based on breast density estimation algorithms and automated breast cancer detection algorithms applied to DBT, ABUS and MRI.
SMARTER is a 3 years project funded by the Spanish Ministry under the Programa Estatal De Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, and is coordinated by Dr. Robert Martí from the Computer Vision and Robotics Institute of the University of Girona. The kick-off meeting of the project was held on the 7th April at the University of Girona, with the participation of all partners working in the project: Hospital Josep Trueta (Girona), UDIAT (Sabadell), Ressonància Magnètica Clínica Girona (Girona), Radboudumc (Nijmegen, Netherlands) and the University of Girona.
