Evaluate of common diagnostic methods for breast cancer by receive operating characteristic curves

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the value of clinical examination,ultrasonography and mammography in diagnosis of breast cancer by receiver operation characteristic(ROC) curve.METHODS: Thirty-eight patients with breast cancer and 50 patients with breast benign lessions confirmed by surgery and pathological examinations were retrospectively analyzed.All the patients were examined by clinical examination,ultrasonography and mammography.ROC curve were drawn with the pathology results as gold standards,and the values of area under the curve(AUC) were calculated.RESULTS: AUC of three diagnostic methods were more than 0.7,and no difference between them.For clinical examination combined with ultrasonography,the AUC was significally larger than that of clinical examination(z=2.275,P0.05).AUC of three diagnostic methods combined was significally larger than that of clinical examination(z=2.096,P0.05).AUC of other combines were larger than that of single diagnostic method with no significant difference(P0.05).CONCLUSIONS: Clinical examination,ultrasonography and mammography are effective methods in the diagnosis of breast cancer.Combined application of clinical examination and ultrasonography can improve the diagnostic value of clinical examination.Ultrasonography can be regarded as a better choice for imaging breast cancer in China's primary hospital.There is no need to repeat the ultrasonography and mammography.