Vienna, Austria – March 8, 2022 – The European Society of Breast Imaging released its new recommendations for screening of women with extremely dense breasts today. In this recommendation EUSOBI steps away from the one-size-fits all approach of biennial mammography that is currently adopted by most European screening organizations and advocates for tailored screening programs that take the characteristics and personal wishes of individual women into account.

Women with extremely dense breast tissue have about two times more chance to develop breast cancer than the average woman. Simultaneously, the sensitivity of mammography is reduced because cancers are being masked by overprojecting fibroglandular breast tissue. After careful consideration of the evidence, particularly the results of the Dutch DENSE trial, EUSOBI now recommends that women with extremely dense breast tissue are offered screening with breast MRI. In these women, breast MRI can reduce the mortality from breast cancer and is highly cost-effective.

“We have known for a long time that the performance of mammography screening in women with extremely dense breasts is not very good” says Fiona Gilbert, current president of EUSOBI. “However, we had nothing better to offer. The recent MRI screening trials have largely changed this.”

The new recommendation has far-reaching consequences for all women, as it implies that they should be informed of their breast density when screened. EUSOBI calls on all screening organizations to provide women with this information. The recommendation also acknowledges that there are clear downsides of screening for breast cancer, and calls on breast radiologists to inform women appropriately.

“Women should have a say in if and how they want to be screened. This implies on one hand that we must offer women all methods – including breast MRI – that are proven effective, while on the other hand we should never hold it against them when they opt for less effective methods or even no screening at all” says Ritse Mann, chair of EUSOBI’s scientific committee and first author of the new recommendation.

EUSOBI acknowledges that it may take time before the new recommendations are implemented, and that the level of implementation is dependent on the resources that are available locally. A webinar for further explanation and discussion of the recommendation is planned. EUSOBI is always willing to advice on local implementation of its recommendations.

The full recommendation can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-022-08617-6

About EUSOBI:
EUSOBI is Europe’s prime association of breast imaging specialists. EUSOBI is a daughter society of the European Society of Radiology (ESR). The core members of EUSOBI are dedicated breast radiologists who are best positioned to bring together the clinical and theoretical realities of breast imaging. Other scientists are welcome as associate members. EUSOBI thus brings together extensive expertise on imaging based breast care, ranging from screening applications to image guided treatment and follow-up.

For further information, please contact: office@eusobi.org

October 2018 (ESR, Vienna) – Athens played host to the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI) Annual Scientific Meeting, which took place on 11-13 October and saw its highest level of participation since the society was founded. With over 900 in attendance, the congress is on the fast lane to become the universal leading meeting in breast imaging.

Held in a different location each year, this year’s meeting saw over 100 additional participants compared to last year’s congress in Berlin.

The annual meeting was organised in collaboration with the Hellenic Society of Breast Imaging and involved the active participation of many Greek radiologists, but also pathologists, breast surgeons, medical oncologists and radiation oncologists. These participants, as well as many other worldwide experts helped bring an exciting programme to audiences, with highlights including dedicated sessions on tomosynthesis in screening/diagnostic settings, artificial intelligence and evidence-based imaging, and advanced/multiparametric ultrasound. This year’s EUSOBI Gold Medal, an award introduced in 2014, was given to Professor Christiane K. Kuhl from Aachen/Germany.

Part of the meeting’s success can be attributed to its expanded programme. This year, EUSOBI extended the congress to 2.5 days, offering a variety of pre-congress courses. These courses included updates on case-based BI-RADS classification, interventional procedures and B3 lesions. In addition and for the first time, the EUSOBI Young Club Committee organised a post-congress special symposium dedicated to young radiologists with an interest in breast imaging and diagnostics.

EUSOBI Past-President, Professor Gábor Forrai from Budapest/Hungary, is delighted with the annual meeting’s growth over the course of his three-year presidency. ‘Each year, I am so happy to see more and more people taking an interest in breast imaging. The fact that they are willing to give their time to come teach, learn and share ideas with colleagues here in Athens is an impressive mark of how dedicated those working in this field are’. During the congress in Athens Doctor Julia Camps Herrero from Valencia/Spain took over the presidency for the next two years. She will be taking office at an exciting time for the society, with EUSOBI having just reached a milestone of serving over 1,000 members for the first time since it was founded.

The European Society of Radiology (ESR) would like to congratulate the European Society of Breast Imaging and the Hellenic Society of Breast Imaging for the success of the meeting and look forward to seeing more great things from EUSOBI in the future.

You can learn more about EUSOBI’s annual meeting here.

Thursday, September 22, 2016 (EUSOBI) – The European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI) will hold its Annual Scientific Meeting in Paris, La Villette, in collaboration with the Society of Female Imaging – Société d’Imagerie de la Femme (SIFEM) on September 23–24, 2016. A breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) course for radiologists is also being held in advance on September 21–22.

Some 660 registered participants are expected to attend this year’s Annual Meeting, confirming a continuously increasing number of attendees over the years.

EUSOBI offers a balanced programme with cutting-edge science and good everyday practice. The Paris meeting will be a perfect opportunity to meet and exchange knowledge with experts and breast radiologists, as well as related companies from all over Europe and beyond.

The EUSOBI National Societies Network is made up of 29 countries. The first position paper from this large group of breast radiology societies will be published in European Radiology in October 2016, addressing the fundamental role of screening mammography for reducing the breast cancer mortality. EUSOBI unequivocally recommends all women to attend screening, according to their countries’ protocols.

This year, the 30th anniversary of contrast-enhanced breast MRI (1986–2016) will be celebrated with the EUSOBI Gold Medal Lecture delivered by Prof. Sylvia Heywang-Köbrunner, who was the first to report on this excellent diagnostic method in 1986. The Keynote Lecture will be delivered by Prof. Hedvig Hricak (Chairman of the Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA) on oncologic imaging in clinical decision making. The President of the U.S. Society of Breast Imaging, Prof. Elizabeth Morris (Chief of Breast Imaging at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA), will present the latest research and achievements in metastatic breast cancer.

The ‘Best way to screen’ session will tackle a hot topic as the debate on breast screening continues while the ‘Cutting edge’ and ‘B3 management’ sessions will include the latest scientific achievements. EUSOBI is currently focusing on breast MRI as this method already plays a major role in daily care, therapy planning and determining disease prognosis.

The EUSOBI Young Club will welcome its new active members at the special young scientists’ session, where the Young Investigator Award will be handed over and the best submitted poster abstracts will be presented.

EUSOBI will announce its new ‘5 points against breast cancer’ in Paris:

• In Europe, there are slightly different breast screening protocols in every country, but one statement is uniform: mammography saves lives and life quality – it can decrease breast cancer death by up to 40%.
• One in five breast cancers occur in women below 50, so screening should start before this age, at least at 45.
• 45% of breast cancers and related deaths occur in women at 65 and over. One in three breast cancers occur in women over 70, so screening should not stop at this age, but continue at least up to 75.
• If a woman has breast symptoms, the breast radiologist is the doctor to meet – he/she integrates all diagnostic techniques in order to give the most accurate information on breast health status e. g. cancer disease.
• The woman’s risk profile matters: personalised screening protocols may include ultrasound and/or MRI – but should always be interpreted together with mammography.