“CADEAT”: considerations on the use of CAD (computer-aided diagnosis) in mammography

Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) has been extensively reported to increase sensitivity by about 10% when added to a single reading while increasing recall rate by 12%, and its current use can be safely recommended in clinical practice. CAD has been suggested as a possible alternative to conventional double reading in screening. Uncontrolled comparison is consistent and suggests that CAD is comparable to double reading in incremental cancer detection rate (CAD +10.6%, double reading +9.1%) and possibly better in recall rate (CAD +12.5%, double reading +28.8%). However, controlled studies comparing single reading + CAD to conventional double reading are not consistent and on average suggest a lower cancer detection rate (−5.1%) and a lower recall rate (−9.8%) for CAD. Scientific evidence is not sufficient for a safe recommendation of single reading + CAD as a current alternative to conventional double reading.