The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting isn’t usually known for diagnostic radiology research. But this week’s conference in Chicago included a number of radiology-related studies, particularly regarding cancer screening.
Most ASCO meetings are dominated by new chemotherapy advances.
- But oncologists maintain a strong interest in cancer screening as the first step to guiding patients into advanced treatments.
At ASCO 2025, screening disparities were at the top of the agenda, as evidenced by the following presentations …
- Mobile mammography addressed healthcare disparities for both urban and rural women in a study that analyzed demographics from 8.3k women screened.
- Patients served by mobile mammography in Pennsylvania were more likely to be Black (68% vs. 40%), uninsured (71% vs. 2.1%), and live in an economically deprived area (70% vs. 27%), and they also had higher recall rates (19% vs. 9.9%) and twice the median days to case resolution (29 vs. 14 days).
- U.S. women who didn’t get mammography screening tended to be younger, uninsured, and have issues with medical costs.
- Farther afield, Uzbekistan’s new breast screening program was described, with 83.6k women screened and 80% of cancers detected at an early stage.
- The program also uses AI, with AI achieving higher AUC than a three-radiologist average (0.89 vs. 0.82) while reducing workload 41% with 3X lower recall.
- In Saudi Arabia, AI was used to audit mammography reports for quality and compliance with BI-RADS guidelines.
- A virtual-first approach in California successfully reached candidates for colorectal and CT lung cancer screening, using an online platform with educational resources and scheduling. Of 71 people who met lung screening criteria, 24% completed CT scans, and of these 29% had clinically significant findings.
- To improve CT lung screening among low-income people of color, Indiana researchers enrolled 89 screening-eligible people in an educational program. Before the program 56% had never heard of lung cancer screening, but afterwards 100% said they believed screening could save their lives.
- Ohio researchers found that of 116 lung cancer cases in a tumor registry, 24% got low-dose CT lung screening.
- An IT tool detected patient concerns about screening’s cost – AKA financial toxicity – and assigned financial navigators to help them.
The Takeaway
This week’s ASCO 2025 sessions demonstrate the synergy between screening and treatment that’s improving survival for a broad spectrum of cancer patients. Continued progress will only serve to benefit both disciplines.
