Screening Performance Benchmarks

Performance Benchmarks for Screening Mammography

In the United States, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation requires limited auditing of clinical outcomes for screening and diagnostic mammography examinations that have been assessed as suspicious for or highly suggestive of malignancy. More comprehensive auditing is performed by many mammography facilities in the United States and other countries. Auditing is thought to be a useful quality assurance procedure, providing performance feedback to mammography facilities and interpreting radiologists.

The following tables and figures contain a range of performance measures pertinent to the comprehensive  auditing of screening mammograms. Pooled data from BCSC registries provides by far the largest reported experience of U.S. screening mammography practice, from which reasonable and realistic screening benchmarks may be derived.

Note: Breast cancer outcomes include diagnoses of invasive carcinoma and ductal carcinoma in situ.

Tables & Figures

Our latest estimates are based on 1,843,591 digital and 458,175 digital breast tomosynthesis screening mammograms performed between 2011 and 2018.

Screening Performance Benchmark Publications

Please also see the following BCSC screening performance benchmarks publications related to the data presented above: 

Lee CI, Abraham L, Miglioretti DL, Onega T, Kerlikowske K, Lee JM, Sprague BL, Tosteson ANA, Rauscher GH, Bowles EJA, diFlorio-Alexander RM, Henderson LM; Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. National Performance Benchmarks for Screening Digital Breast Tomosynthesis: Update from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. Radiology. 2023 May;307(4):e222499. doi: 10.1148/radiol.222499. Epub 2023 Apr 11. PMID: 37039687; PMCID: PMC10323294. [Abstract and Full Text]

Lehman CD, Arao RF, Sprague BL, Lee JM, Buist DS, Kerlikowske K, Henderson LM, Onega T, Tosteson AN, Rauscher GH, Miglioretti DL. National Performance Benchmarks for Modern Screening Digital Mammography: Update from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. Radiology 2017;283(1):49–58. [Abstract or Full Text] Archived screening performance benchmarks tables and figures

Rosenberg RD, Yankaskas BC, Abraham LA, Sickles EA, Lehman CD, Geller BM, Carney PA, Kerlikowske K, Buist DS, Weaver DL, Barlow WE, Ballard-Barbash R. Performance benchmarks for screening mammography. Radiology 2006 Oct;241(1):55-66. [Abstract]