Digital breast tomosynthesis leads to more women with suspect lesions being investigated with core needle biopsy and clinical breast examination than conventional screening, an Australian trial shows.

The three-dimensional mammography also detects more benign and malignant lesions, which would likely increase the assessment workload if adopted as the primary screening tool, researchers say.

Increased cancer detection with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) needed to be balanced with the risk of potentially unnecessary follow-up procedures, they added.

The authors, from the University of Sydney and Maroondah BreastScreen in Melbourne, previously reported the primary results from Australia’s first population-based pilot trial comparing DBT and digital mammography (DM).