Correspondence (letter to the editor): Differentiation of Breast Cancers Is Missing

In an article that is otherwise very clearly structured I am missing the differentiation of different breast cancers.

In my personal environment, an invasive, lobular breast cancer measuring 20 mm was detected, by means of sonography, 11 months after the preceding mammography screening examination, which, when the mammograms were analyzed retrospectively, still remained undetectable. This is obviously a methodological problem since—as our radiological colleagues assure us—these tumors cannot be detected by mammography. Since they account for 15–20% of breast cancers, this result is not negligible. This is neither an interval cancer nor technical or human failure.

Reports from normal mammograms back to referrers do not include any mention of the fact that these cancers can be detected only by additional sonography—even if screening uses merely mammography, for financial reasons.