Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSStudying more samples before cancer screening may cut errors
Medical staff searching for breast and cervical cancers in test results make mistakes because they do not see examples often enough, according to scientists in the US.
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Research has shown that people who need to find an object or event that they only see rarely are more likely to miss it when it does appear, regardless of profession.
Screening professionals confirmed that “missed” cases of breast cancer are a recognised problem, but the scientists said people can improve their accuracy by studying samples of what they are looking for beforehand.
A study of 12 volunteers, who were asked to identify specific “target” items in X-ray images of objects in empty bags, revealed the number of times the target appeared affected how many mistakes were made in a visual search.
Lead author Jeremy Wolfe, from Harvard Medical School, said: “If you don’t find it often, you often don’t find it. If you are trying to find 20 cases of breast cancer from 40 mammograms, you’ll find more of them than if you look for the same 20 cases from 2,000 mammograms.”
The results, published in Current Biology, will be further tested in doctors’ clinics and airports.
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