Mammo+Plus

The Mammo+Plus score is an image-based assessment that uses a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm to compute a patient’s one-year risk of getting breast cancer. A patient will fall into one of two categories, normal or elevated. The score is based on three key components: 240 data points/features from an AI interpretation of the mammogram, the patient’s age, and her breast density. This model has been compared to survey-based models and has been found to be statistically more accurate

Unlike a questionnaire-based, lifetime risk assessment model, Mammo+Plus is image-based. It statistically analyses key features of a mammogram, comparing it to a robust breast cancer library, to compute a short-term, one-year risk score.

No, a patient’s risk score is dependent on the features of her mammogram, which changes every year. And a score one year isn’t necessarily linked to a score the following year. The AI model does not “know” last year’s score and reviews every mammogram from scratch. Unlike other predictive models, a patient is not locked into a score or category for the rest of her life. The Mammo+Plus score is an active biomarker that can trend up or trend down. We recommend that patients know their annual scores so trends can be established over time.

This means that based on the Mammo+Plus software, age and breast density, a patient’s chance of getting breast cancer between annual mammograms is within a normal range. A normal score means that a patient should continue to do what she’s doing to manage her breast health. It does not mean that she can forgo an annual screening mammogram.

If a patient’s score is elevated, we encourage you to explain that the finding does not guarantee cancer will be found the following year. For elevated findings, it may seem intuitive to order supplemental screening exams. However, this is a predictive score of a potential future state that does not currently exist and therefore will not be seen on supplemental screenings.

About 10 to 15% of patients will be in the elevated category.

Of the patients that develop breast cancer in one-year, more than 50% will have an elevated score. That doesn’t mean that every elevated patient will get breast cancer, but one-year cancers are concentrated in this category.

The chance that your patient will get breast cancer within one year is still low, but it’s important to know that her mammogram has features that are associated with one-year cancers. She will need to be diligent about her monthly breast self-exam. If she feels a new lump that is fixed, firm and getting bigger in size, it will need to get worked up. And she will particularly need to be compliant with her annual mammogram.

Every woman has two basic types of tissue in the breast. Fatty tissue, which is easier to see on a mammogram, and dense tissue, which is harder to see. Dense tissue shows up as bright, or white on a mammogram. Cancers are also white so small spots of cancer can potentially hide in dense tissue. The density score is an objective assessment of the amount of dense tissue in the breast. Before AI, we relied on a subjective assessment. We can now count every single pixel, and get a more accurate reading that is broken down into subtypes by the algorithm.