Evaluation of Adjunctive Ultrasonography for Breast Cancer Detection Among Women Aged 40-49 Years With Varying Breast Density Undergoing Screening Mammography: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Mammography has limited accuracy in breast cancer screening. Ultrasonography, when used in conjunction with mammography screening, is helpful to detect early-stage and invasive cancers for asymptomatic women with dense and nondense breasts.

Objective: To evaluate the performance of adjunctive ultrasonography with mammography for breast cancer screening, according to differences in breast density.

Sensitivity and specificity of mammography and adjunctive ultrasonography to screen for breast cancer in the Japan Strategic Anti-cancer Randomized Trial (J-START): a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Mammography is the only proven method for breast cancer screening that reduces mortality, although it is inaccurate in young women or women with dense breasts. We investigated the efficacy of adjunctive ultrasonography.

Methods: Between July, 2007, and March, 2011, we enrolled asymptomatic women aged 40-49 years at 42 study sites in 23 prefectures into the Japan Strategic Anti-cancer Randomized Trial (J-START).

Participants' understanding of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) through informed consent procedures in the RCT for breast cancer screening, J-START.

Background: It is often difficult to enrol healthy volunteers into a randomized controlled trial (RCT) as there are barriers to participants' proper understanding of a trial. This study aimed to evaluate degrees of understanding of the informed consent (IC) process among healthy volunteers who participated in an RCT. Additionally, factors associated with degree of understanding were investigated.