title: Clinical Outcomes of Mammographic BI-RADS 3 Lesions in the Community Hospital Setting.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Per the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) manual, a lesion designated as BI-RADS 3 should have less than a 2% chance of becoming malignancy. With this study, we evaluated the outcome of patients given a BI-RADS 3 designation in the community hospital. Specifically, whether our cancer detection rate for BI-RADS 3 lesions was less than 2% and comparable to rates obtained at other institutions.
  
  
  METHODS
  The records of 1037 patients given a BI-RADS 3 on screening mammogram were reviewed over a 1-year period between May 2007 and May 2008. A total of 142 of these patients were lost to follow-up, leaving 885 patients. Some of these patients had more than 1 BI-RADS 3 lesion during this study period, yielding a total of 923 BI-RADS 3 lesions to evaluate out of the 885 patients remaining. Of these, 478 of the patients' lesions were biopsied. The pathology was then reviewed to determine whether the lesions were cancerous.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 6 of the 882 lesions initially classified as a BI-RADS 3 were later diagnosed as cancer, or 0.65% of the study population. The positive predictive value of receiving a BI-RADS 3 was 99.3%, which demonstrates a high accuracy in predicting that a lesion is not cancerous.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most lesions that are diagnosed as a BI-RADS 3 have a very low probability of eventually being diagnosed as cancer. The findings from this study are comparable to studies performed at other institutions.
authors: Breast Center at Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, New Jersey, USA.
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Friedman
authors: Breast Center at Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, New Jersey, USA. Electronic address: lauren.m.hartford@gmail.com.
authors: Lauren
authors: L
authors: Kerwin
authors: Breast Center at Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, New Jersey, USA.
authors: Jean
authors: J
authors: Chung
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: BI-RADS 3; Breast imaging; Mammography