Skip to main content
  • Poster presentation
  • Open access
  • Published:

False negative assessments: an effective quality assurance method

Objective

To identify the frequency and characteristics of false negative assessment (FNA); an interval cancer with prior recall to assessment.

Methods

A retrospective audit, over 7 years, between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2011. Using NBSS databases, we recorded: lesion type, size, further mammographic views, ultrasound, clinical findings, biopsy results and final histology.

Results

Twenty-nine cases by QARC, 13 true FNA and 16 excluded because contralateral or in a different quadrant. In this period, 220,522 woman were screened and 10,391 (<5%) were referred for assessment. Total cancers detected in this period were 2,343, of which 1,867 were diagnosed at assessment and 476 (20%) were interval cancers. True FNA: 2.7% of all interval cancers. True FNA: 0.6% of all screen-detected cancers. All cases were background mixed density. True FNA: 11/13 incident screen, 2/13 prevalent. Asymmetry/stromal deformity in 7/13 (54%), calcification 4/13 (30%), mass 2/13 (15%). Two cases were early recall (EC) (asymmetry, and mass with calcifications), both incident screens. EC did not contribute in either case as it led to false reassurance. All asymmetry/stromal deformity reassuring on further views, with no correlating ultrasound or clinical abnormality. On review of all cases, only 2/13 were felt not to have had complete triple assessment. Final pathology: two DCIS, four lobular cancers, seven ductal cancers. Seven cases were discussed at a multidisciplinary meeting.

Conclusion

True FNA remains very low. This is because assessment cases have complete triple assessment and MDT discussion. FNA can be used as a valuable educational process and mechanism to ensure consistency and adherence to NHSBSP standards.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Manuel, D., Dall, B. & Sharma, N. False negative assessments: an effective quality assurance method. Breast Cancer Res 14 (Suppl 1), P45 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr3300

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr3300

Keywords